LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


SHOP  KINKS 


A    BOOK    ENTIRELY    DIFFERENT    FROM    ANY     OTHER    ON 
MACHINE-SHOP  PRACTICE.      SHOWING  SPECIAL  WAYS 
OF   DOING  WORK  BETTER,    MORE   CHEAPLY   AND 
MORE    RAPIDLY    THAN  USUAL,    AS   DONE  IN 
FIFTY     OR     MORE     LEADING     SHOPS    IN 
AMERICA.     FULL  OF  VALUABLE  AND 
HELPFUL       SUGGESTIONS       RE- 
GARDING     THINGS      THAT 
CAN    BE     APPLIED    TO 
SHOP       PRACTICE. 

A    MOST    USEFUL    BOOK    FOR    THE    MACHINIST 

BY 

ROBERT  GRIMSHAW,  M.E. 

Author  of    "Locomotive   Catechism,"    "Steam    Engine   Catechism," 
"  Engine  Runner's  Catechism,"  etc.,  etc. 

FULLY    ILLUSTRATED 

By  two  hundred  and  twenty-two  new  and  original  illustra- 
tions, made  expressly  for  this  work 

FOURTH    EDITION 

NEW    YORK 

THE  NORMAN  W.  HENLEY  PUBLISHING  CO. 
132  NASSAU   STREET 


1904 


OF   THE  A 

UNIVERSITY    I 


Copyrighted,  1896 

by 
ROBERT    GRIMSHAW 

and 
Copyrighted,  1898 

by 
NORMAN  W.  H3NI,SY  &  CO. 


MACGOWAN  &  SLIPPER 

PRINTERS 

30  Beekman  Street 

New  York 

U.  S.  A. 


PREFACE. 

ABOUT  thirty  years  ago,  on  entering  one  of  our  princi- 
pal iron  ship  and  engine  building  works,  my  chief 
suggested  that  I  keep  a  note-book  or  its  equivalent. 
This  advice  was  at  once  accepted,  with  advantage  to  my- 
self, and  I  hope  to  others  also.  The  practice  has  been 
kept  up  throughout  a  very  busy  life,  passed  in  touch  with 
important  industrial  establishments  in  the  United  States, 
Canada,  and  Europe,  and  with  engineers,  machinists,  and 
scientists  whose  acquaintance  (and  in  some  instances 
friendship)  I  acknowledge  as  a  rare  privilege. 

During  a  large  portion  of  this  time  I  have  contributed 
editorially  and  over  my  own  signature  and  various  ' '  pen- 
names  ' '  to  the  principal  practical  journals  in  English 
and  French,  and  more  recently  in  German,  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic.  The  favorable  reception  accorded  my 
published  articles  and  books  emboldens  me  to  produce 
this  volume.  Its  over  500  separate  items  consist  not  only 

195048 


of  my  own  and  others'  widely-scattered  items  from  tech- 
nical journals,  notably  Mechanics,  Machinery,  and  the 
American  Machinist  (named  in  order  of  extent  of 
my  indebtedness),  but  of  material  either  gathered  from 
visits  to  well-known  shops,  or  based  on  data  contributed 
"by  leading  machine-tool  builders  and  users.  To  these 
latter  I  have  given  due  credit  not  only  in  appropriate 
places  in  the  body  of  the  book,  but  in  a  special  list  on 
page  7  ;  and  hereby  again  extend  my  thanks. 

The  book  was  at  first  proposed  under  the  name  ' '  Ma- 
chine-Shop Chat  ' ' ;  but  the  large  proportion  of  ' '  kinks  ' ' 
and  "  wrinkles  "  therein  illustrated  or  referred  to 
•warrants  the  change  to  the  present  title. 

As  "shop  kinks  "  and  "  wrinkles"  will  always  interest 
tne,  I  hope  that  my  readers  will  favor  me  with  short 
sketches  and  descriptions,  concerning  their  own  and 
others'  practice,  especially  for  unusual  work  and  in 
emergencies. 

ROBERT  GRIMSHAW. 
January,  1896. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 

I  acknowledge,  with  thanks,  my  indebtedness  to 
the  following  establishments  for  "  shop  kinks"  : 


T.  R.  Almond, 

Atlantic  Works, 

Baldwin  Locomotive  Works, 

Bement&  Miles  Co., 

Hugo  Bilgram, 

H.  Bolliuckx, 

Brown  &  Porter. 

Brown  &  Sharpe  Mfg.  Co.,   . 

Cleveland  Twist  Drill  Co., 

Coffin  &  Leigh  ton, 

Colt  Fire  Arms  Co., 

Geo.  V.  Cresson, 

Delamater  Iron  Works, 

Dicksou  Mfg.  Co.,    . 

Ferracute  Machine  Works, 

Freeland  Works,      . 

H.  Gruson, 

Hancock  Inspirator  Co., 

Hartford  Steam  Engineering  Co., 

Hewes  &  Phillips,    . 

R.  Hoe&  Co.,   . 

Geo.  C.  Howard, 

E.  Harrington  &  Sons, 

Lane  &  Bodley  Co., 

Leland  &  Faulconer,      . 

Lockwood  Mfg.  Co., 

Men  nig  Frt-res, 

Morris,  Tasker  &  Co., 

N.  Y  S.  &  W.  R'y, 

Pennsylvania  R.  R., 

A.  Piat, 

1>.  W.  Pond  Co., 

J.  Morton  Poole  &  Co., 

Pratt  &  Whitney  Co., 

P.  Pryibil, 

Pusey  &  Jones  Co., 

Riehle  Bros.  Testing  Mch.  Co.,   . 

William  Sellers  &  Co., 

Smith  &  Coventry, 

Standard  Tool  Co. 

Straight  Line  Engine  Co., 

AVestinghouse  Machine  Co., 

S.  A.  Woods  Co., 

Vale  &  Towne  Mfg.  Co. . 


Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Brussels,  Belgium. 
Liverpool,  Eng. 
Providence,  R.  I. 
Cleveland,  Ohio. 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Hartford,  Conn. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Scranton,  Pa. 
Bridgeton,  N.  J. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Buckau,  Germany. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Hartford,  Conn. 
Newark,  N.  J. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
Detroit,  Mich. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Brussels,  Belgium 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Altoona,  Pa. 
Paris,  France. 
Worcester,  Mass. 
Wilmington,  Del. 
Hartford,  Conn. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Wilmington,  Del. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Manchester,  Eng. 
Athol,  Mass. 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Pittsburg,  Pa. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Stamford,  Conn. 


SHOP   KINKS 


AND 


MACHINE   SHOP    CHAT. 


••The  Poor  Old  Lathe."  I  was  talking  the  other 
day  with  a  locomotive  builder  who  was  greatly  criti- 
cising the  crossheads  on  a  certain  road  because  they 
were  of  the  Laird  type  ;  that  is,  there  was  one  heavy 
guide-bar  above  the  piston-rod,  and  the  crosshead 
played  on  that.  The  objection  was  and  is,  that  the 
thing  is  not  in  line  ;  that  there  is  a  tendency  for  the 
crosshead  to  be  twisted  fore  and  aft  at  every  to-and- 
fro  stroke,  bending  the  piston-rod ;  and  the  greater 
the  wear  of  slide  and  guide-bar,  the  greater  this 
tendency  and  its  effect. 

The  very  same  criticism  applies  to  the  average 
engine-lathe  with  only  one  feed-screw  to  the  carriage ; 
and  the  very  same  trouble  results  as  soon  as  there  is 
wear.  But  with  two  feed-screws,  one  at  each  side,  and 
each  of  which  should  be  reversible,  the  carriage 
would  be  fed  along  squarely  ;  and  if  the  lathe  had 
only  one  leg  at  the  tail-stock  end,  as  long  ago  pro- 
posed by  Prof.  Sweet,  it  would  stand  square  on  any 
kind  of  a  floor  and  not  twist  the  bed. 

Lathe-Speed  Regulator.  I  am  much  pleased  with 
a  device  at  Norcross's,  to  keep  the  speed  of  a  lathe 
uniform,  no  matter  what  the  diameter  of  the  piece 


io  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

being  turned.  As  it  is,  on  ordinary  lathes,  when  the 
tool  is  working  far  from  the  center  (say  on  a  cylin- 
der head  or  other  disk- shaped  piece),  the  cutting 
speed  is  greater  than  when  it  is  working  close  to  the 
center ;  and  it  is  evident  that,  especially  on  large 
pieces,  if  the  lathe  is  geared  so  as  to  give  the  proper 
cutting-speed  (which  is  the  maximum  for  that 
material,  so  as  to  get  the  most  work  per  hour  out  of 
the  lathe) ,  when  the  tool  is  at  or  near  the  axial  line, 
the  speed  will  be  too  great  when  the  tool  is  working 
further  out,  and  may  be  ruinous  when  at  the  edge  of 
a  piece  of  large  diameter.  On  a  piece  eighteen 
inches  in  diameter,  if  the  speed  is  right  when  work- 
ing one  inch  from  the  center,  the  average  speed  will 
be  five  times  too  great,  and  the  maximum  speed  nine 
times  too  great,  which  would  be  ruinous  to  the  tool. 

If  we  get  at  it  the  other  way  and  to  prevent  injury 
to  the  tool,  and  improper  work,  make  the  cutting 
speed  right  for  the  periphery  of  the  1 8-inch  disk,  the 
average  speed,  which  will  represent  an  approxima- 
tion to  the  capacity  of  the  lathe,  will  be  only  one- 
fifth  as  high  as  it  should  be,  and  the  speed  at  one 
inch  from  the  center  will  be  one-ninth  of  what  it 
should  be.  That  sort  of  thing  may  be  very  satisfac- 
tory from  the  standpoint  of  preserving  the  tool-points, 
but  it  does  not  help  along  the  capacity  of  the  shop  to 
get  work  done,  nor  aid  in  satisfying  customers  who 
'(as  most  of  them  do)  want  their  work  in  a  hurry. 

If,  however,  we  have  a  belt-shifting  device  consist- 
ing of  two  horizontal  belt-cones  placed  almost  in  con- 
tact, the  head  of  one  opposed  to  the  foot  of  the  other, 
and  a  space  between  them  rather  less  than  the  thick- 
ness of  an  endless  rubber  belt  having  a  length  rather 
more  than  the  greatest  circumference  of  the  cone 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


ii 


about  which  it  wraps,  rotation  of  one  cone  (by 
"cone"  I  mean  straight-sided  conical  fhistum,  not 
stepped  pulley)  will  cause  rotation  of  the  other;  and 
sliding  the  belt  along  from  one  point  in  the  length  of 
the  two  cones  to  another  will  vary  and,  even  if 
desired,  reverse  the  velocity-ratio.  If  the  belt  be  em- 
braced by  the  prongs  of  a  shipper  which  engages  in 
an  advancing  spiral  parallel  with  the  cones,  rotation 
of  the  spiral  will  cause  variation  of  the  velocity-ratio ; 


FIG.  i. — LATHE-SPEED  REGULATOR  (BROWN  &  SHARPE). 

and  *if  the  spiral  be  specially  designed  with  irregular 
pitch,  any  desired  rate  of  change  of  the  velocity-ratio 
between  the  two  cones  may  be  obtained.  If  the 
driven  cone  be  belted  to  the  lathe-gearing,  and  the 
prong  which  engages  in  the  advancing  spiral  be 
attached  to  a  piece  which  bears  against  the  tool,  or 
the  tool-post,  or  the  cross-slide,  the  motion  of  the 
tool  outwards  from  the  center  may  be  made  to  cause 
decrease  of  the  speed  of  the  driven  cone,  so  that  when 
the  tool  is  working  on  the  large  diameter  the  cutting 


12  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

speed  may  be  kept  just  the  same  as  when  it  is  work- 
ing on  the  small  diameter.  Figure  i  shows  this  most 
satisfactorily  ;  the  piece  leading  to  the  machine  being 
shown  cut  off. 

Lead-Screw  Wear.  The  trouble  with  your  lathe  is 
that  it  has  been  doing  right-handed  work  for  years 
and  years,  cutting  right-handed  threads  ;  and  as  the 
wear  has  taken  place  on  only  one  side  of  the  lead- 
screw  its  pitch  has  been  increased  since  you  first  got 
it.  Further,  it  has  been  used  most  at  the  end  nearest 
the  live  center,  and  is  most  worn  there  ;  and  as  the 
wear  increases  the  screw  will  have  not  only  too  great 
a  pitch,  all  along  that  part  of  the  screw  which  has 
been  used,  but  an  irregular  excess  which  cannot  be 
calculated  for  or  allowed  for.  If  it  was  arranged  so 
that  you  could  turn  it  end  for  end  every  now  and 
then,  you  would  at  least  have  the  error  caused  by 
and  upon  short  work  lessened  and  divided  between 
the  two  ends ;  but  for  all  that  the  pitch  would  not  be 
true.  The  next  time  you  get  a  lathe  of  such  a  con- 
struction, if  you  do  ever  get  one  just  like  it,  better 
do  your  general  screw-cutting  on  one  end,  and  for 
special  work  requiring  to  be  very  correct,  use  the 
other  end.  Then  if  you  want  you  can  keep  the  wear  , 
from  coming  on  only  one  side  of  the  screw,  not  by 
cutting  left-handed  screws,  but  putting  a  pulley  at 
the  tail  of  the  lathe  and  by  a  cord  attached  to  the 
carriage  at  one  end  and  a  weight  at  the  other  making 
the  carriage  drag  the  screw  instead  of  the  screw 
pushing  the  carriage.  This  will  put  some  of  the  wear 
on  the  left  side  of  the  threads  instead  of  the  right, 
even  in  cutting  right-hand  threads.  You  may  say 
that  every  time  the  carriage  is  brought  back  there  is  a 
pressure  put  upon  the  other  side  of  the  screw-threads  > 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  13 

"but  in  reply  to  this  I  may  say  that  on  the  back  travel 
there  is  no  pressure  as  during  the  cut. 

Enough  care  is  seldom  taken  with  the  lubrication 
of  lead-screws  ;  all  the  bearings  may  get  enough  oil 
and  of  the  right  kind,  but  the  screw  is  left  to  collect 
lint  and  fine  fillings  and  dirt  that  may  drop  or  float 
that  way,  and  is  too  seldom  wiped  clean  with  waste 
and  given  proper  oil  in  liberal  quantities.  The  bear- 
ings may  be  restored  to  truth  so  much  more  easily 
than  the  lead- screw,  and  wear  and  damage  done  to 
them  is  so  much  less  injurious  to  the  machine  and  to 
the  work  done  on  it,  that  it  is  a  wonder  that  machin- 
ists pay  so  little  attention  below  the  shears. 

Facing-Lathes  should  at  least  do  facing  rapidly 
and  well,  yet  on  most  of  them  we  find  the  cross-feed 
screw  so  fine  that  the  work  is  hampered  and  the 
owner  of  the  lathe  handicapped.  In  the  Ferracute 
Works  there  is  a  lathe  built  principally  for  facing, 
that  is  like  the  "protection  that  protects"  ;  that  is 
it  faces ;  the  cross-screw  having  a  very  coarse  pitch  that 
carries  the  tool  across  at  a  great  rate  when  desired, 
while  of  course  any  needed  degree  of  slowness  may 
be  obtained  by  hand. 

Lathe-Center  Spindles.  There  is  no  use  in  trying 
to  do  good  work  with  improper  tools.  The  lathe  is 
a  tool  which  can  do  good  wrork  when  it  is  in  proper 
order  and  is  properly  used  ;  but  if  the  ways  are  un- 
true and  the  lead-screw  worn,  or  the  center  soft  and 
out  of  true,  the  production  of  good  work  will  be 
more  by  good  luck  than  by  good  management ;  and 
in  many  instances  might  be  classed  among  modern 
miracles. 

If  the  lathe-center  is  soft  it  will  be  apt  to  get  bent, 


I4  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

bruised  and  indented,  no  matter  how  careful  the 
workman  is.  Hardened  centers  very  seldom  get  out 
of  true  even  with  heavy  work  or  heavy  cut.  They 
also  do  truer  work  than  soft  ones.  Of  course  they 


FIG.  2. — GRINDING  LATHE-CENTER  SPINDLES. 

require  grinding  once  in  a  while  to  keep  them  in 
perfect  shape  ;  but  this  is  easily  done,  as  for  instance 
by  such  a  lathe-center  grinder  as  that  of  which  I 
show  a  top  view  in  Figure  2. 


FIG.  3. — LATHE-CENTFR  GRINDER. 

In  order  to  operate  it,  the  bar  A  is  placed  loosely 
in  the  tool-post,  and  the  machine  placed  on  the  lathe- 
centers  as  at  BB,  screwing  the  tail-slide  firmly.  The 
fall-rest  or  tool-blocking  is  adjusted  until  the  bar  A 
rests  squarely  upon  it.  Then  the  tail-post  screw  is 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  15 

screwed  up,  the  tail-slide  withdrawn,  and  the  lathe- 
carriage  moved  until  the  machine  is  in  a  position 
similar  to  C  in  Figure  4.  D  is  a  rubber  pulley 
which  is  placed  on  the  smallest  step  ;  and  the  lathe 
may  then  be  run  backwards  with  or  without  the 
back-gears,  as  is  preferred.  The  cut  of  a  fly-wheel 
is  adjusted  by  the  cross-slide  handles  of  the  lathe. 


FIG.  4. — GRINDING  LATHE-CENTER  SPINDLES. 

The  wheel  is  moved  across  the  surface  of  the  center 
by  the  handle  E.  The  adjustment  F  provides  for 
different  sized  lathes. 

The  advantage  of  this  machine  is  that  it  is  entirely 
self-contained,  requiring  no  belts  to  connect  with  the 
countershaft  or  cone  of  the  lathe  ;  there  is  no  crank 
to  be  turned  by  hand.  Its  spindle  is  ground  true, 
straight  and  round. 

Figure  3    shows   the  general  construction  of  the 


i6 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


machine  and  its  relative  position  to  the  lathe-center 
when  it  is  ready  to  grind. 

Lathe-Centers  made  like  Figure  5  have  the  ad- 
vantage of  doing  away  with  the  difficulty  in  turning 
up  the  center,  by  reason  of  the  difference  in  cutting- 
speed  at  the  point  and  the  full  diameter  of  the  taper. 
Figure  6  shows  the  same  thing  on  a  center  cut  away 
on  one  side  to  admit  a  chaser  close  to  the  center  ; 
and  Figure  7  the  same  idea  applied  to  milling- 


FIG.  5. — LATHE-CENTER. 


FIG.  6. — CENTER  CUT  AWAY 
ON  ONE  SIDE. 


A 

a: 


FIG.  7. — MILLING-CENTER. 


FIG.  8. — LATHE-CENTER  FOR 
HEAVY  WORK. 


centers.  Figure  8  shows  a  form  for  heavy  lathe- 
work;  having  an  oil-hole  A  pierced  to  the  center  and 
carried  to  the  point  as  shown  by  the  dotted  lines  ;  an 
oil  groove  B  being  cut  at  the  bottom  so  that  the 
center  need  not  be  slacked  back  in  order  to  oil  it. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


Lathe-Centers  for  Heavy  Work.  It  is  said  that  the 
best  outline  of  mold-board  for  plows  for  any  given 
soil  is  that  shown  after  a  plow  of  almost  any  kind 
has  been  driven  through  that  soil  and  noting  the 
surface  produced  by  the  material  which  clings  to  the 


FIG.  9  — OLD  CENTERS  WORN  TO  BEST  SHAPE  FOR  RESISTANCE. 

mold-board.  Where  .the  clay  remains  thick  on  the 
board  is  where  the  metal  should  be  highest.  On  the 
same  principle,  perhaps  the  proper  form  of  lathe- 
center  for  heavy  work  would  be  that  produced  by 


FIG.  10. — WORK-CENTER  MADE  WITH  SLEDGE  AND  SET- PUNCH  AFTER 
DRILLING. 

running  a  cone  center  for  years  with  such  work,  and 
noting  the  shape  into  which  it  got. 

An  old  correspondent  of  Mechanics  states  that  this 
form  is  about  as  shown  in  Figure  9,  which  we  may 
call  the  center  worn  to  the  best  shape  for  resistance, 


i8 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


and  from  this  he  deduces  as  the  best  form  to  make 
one  with  an  angle  of  80° ,  terminated  in  a  rounded  end 
which  is  part  of  a  |-inch  ball ;  the  hole  in  the  shaft  is 
to  be  drilled  J-inch  diameter,  chipped  part  way 
out  to  the  shape  of  the  center,  and  finished  with 
a  sledge  and  set-punch  to  the  same  shape  as  the 
center.  The  swaging  hardens  the  walls  of  the 
hole.  Then  with  a  very  narrow  cape  chisel 
three  evenly-spaced  grooves  are  to  be  cut  from  the 
outside  to  the  center,  and  the  drilled  hole  at  the 
bottom  should  be  opened  a  little  with  a  small  center- 
punch. 

Lathe-Centers  for  Cutting  Off.  Where  there  is 
much  cutting  off  to  be  done,  it  may  be  well  to  have 
the  lathe-centers  formed  as  shown  in  Figure  1 1  ;  there 


FIG.  ii. — LATHE-CENTER  FOR  CUTTING  OFF. 

being  a  cylindrical  extension  with  coned  point  which 
will  permit  the  cutting-off  tool  to  pass  between  the 
center  and  the  work,  without  leaving  any  burr. 

Centers  for  Coned  or  Tubular  Work.  Figures  12  and 
13  show  a  dead  center  used  by  the  Lockwood  Manu- 
facturing Company  to  prevent  wearing  at  the  mouth 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


of  the  hole  in  the  work  without  using  a  plug.  A  is 
a  stem  fitting  into  the  tail -stock  spindle,  having  a 
collar  B  and  carrying  the  loose  cone  C  while  the 
stem  itself  is  coned  at  .D,  in  the  same  line  with  C. 
The  work  is  supported  on  the  loose  cone  C.  At  E 
is  a  rawhide  washer  to  prevent  cutting  on  the  flat 


FIGS.  12  AND  13. — CENTER  FOR  CONED  OR  TUBULAR  WORK. 
(LOCK  wooi>s.) 

surfaces.  The  pin  F  is  one-half  of  its  cross-section 
in  C,  and  the  other  is  a  semicircular  groove  in  the 
stem  of  A.  G  is  a  spiral  oil-groove  passing  along  the 
top  of  A,  thence  up  through  the  collar  £,  so  that  the 
rawhide  washer  E,  the  pin  F  and  the  bore  of  the  cone 
C  may  all  be  lubricated  through  one  oil-hole. 

Centering  is   the   most   important   step   in    lathe- 
work  ;  end-squaring  being  next.     In  light  work,  after 


FIG.  14. — CENTERING  LATHE- WORK. 

drilling  in  the  center — say  with  a  A-inch  drill — the 
center  may  be  made  with  a  tool  such  as  is  shown  in 


20 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


Figure  14 ;  the  angle  being  from  60°  to  70*  or  even 
75°.  Such  a  tool  will  make  a  cone  that  will  fit  the 
lathe-center  loosely  on  the  inside  and  hence  be  apt 
to  keep  oiled.  A  trifle  more  than  half  the  side  of 
the  cone  should  be  cut  away  and  a  flat  face  left. 

This  will  not  do  for  heavy  work. 

Work-Centers.  There  are  right  ways  and  wrong 
ways  to  do  most  things;  and  work-centers  and  lathe- 


FIG.  15. — '  BOTCHMAN'S  FAVORITE." — WRONG. 

centers  are  no  exceptions.     What  the    Iceland  and 
Faulconer  Co.  calls  "John  Botchman's  favorite"   is 


FIG.  16. — BOTCHMAN'S  CENTER  AND  ARBOR. — WRONG. 

shown  in  Figure  15  ;  the  lathe-center  being  about  90° 
and  the  reamed  center  of  the  arbor  or  shaft  about  60°. 
This  gives  a  ring  of  contact,  only,  at  .4,  so  that  the 
lathe-center,  if  soft,  is  ringed  at  that  point,. and  if 
hard  the  work  continually  shifts. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


21 


Another  of  his  favorites  is  that  shown  in  Figure 
16;  and  this  is  if  possible  worse  than  the  last  one. 
Here  the  work-center  is  of  greater  angle  than  the 
lathe-center,  and  here,  also,  there  is  only  a  ring  of 
contact. 


FIG.  17.— "  BOTCHMAN'S  DELIGHT  "—WRONG. 

Figure  17  is  the  Botchman's  delight.  The  angle 
of  the  lathe-center  and  of  the  work-center  are  about 
the  same,  and  as  no  care  is  taken  that  the  lathe- 
center  fills  the  work-center,  there  is  considerable 
wobble,  rendering  concentric  work  practically  impos- 


FIG.  18. — ANOTHER  WRONG  WAY. 

sible.  The  drilled  hole  in  the  work  will  in  this  case 
afford  an  excellent  reservoir  for  chips,  and  if  the 
lathe-center  is  soft,  this  latter  will  be  very  nicely 
worn. 


22  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Figure  18  shows  another  favorite  way  of  centering 
in  botch  shops.  The  work-center  is  made  with  a 
center-punch.  It  may  be  in  the  true  center,  or  it 
may  be  somewhere  near  it ;  it  may  be  truly  axial, 
or  it  may  be  out  of  line.  In  either  case  it  has  not 


FIG.  19. — STILL  ANOTHER  WRONG  WAY. 

the  same  angle  as  the  lathe-center.  There  is  no 
center-drilled  portion — thus  effecting  a  saving  in 
small  center-drills.  Figure  19  shows  another  im- 
proper method. 


FIG.  20. — RIGHT  WAY  TO  MAKE  ARBOR  AND  CENTER. 

Figure  20  shows  the  proper  way  to  make  both 
the  lathe-center  and  the  work-center.  The  former 
is  exactly  60°,  being  hardened  and  ground.  The 
latter  is  also  exactly  60°,  as  is  known  by  its  being 
reamed  with  the  center- reamer  shown  in  Figure  42. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  23 

The  point  of  the  lathe-center  is  protected  by  the 
center-drilled  portion  of  the  work-center ;  but  no  chips 
can  get  in  here. 

Preserving  Arbor-Centers.      In  the   Pryibil  shops, 
instead  of  the  usual  double  countersink,  they  make 


FIG.  21. — PRESERVING  ARBOR-CENTERS. 

arbor-centers  as  shown  in  Figure  21,  putting  babbitt 
metal  at  B. 

Boring  Tapers  in  the  lathe  may  be  facilitated  by 
giving  the  boring-bar  a  ball  center  comprising  about 
two-thirds  of  the  diameter  of  the  sphere,  held  on  to 
the  bar  by  a  cap  on  the  end  of  the  latter,  and  having 
in  it  a  countersunk  and  deep-drilled  work-center. 
With  such  an  arrangement  the  bar-centers  cannot 
wear  out  of  truth  by  setting  it  over. 

Testing  Lathe-Centers.  Never  assume  that  they 
are  true.  Test  them.  One  way  is  to  make  a  plain  disk 
say  ten  inches  in  diameter  and  TVinrh  thick  with  a 
TV-inch  center-hole  straight  through  it.  This,  if 
placed  on  the  centers  of  the  lathe  when  the  latter 
are  not  in  truth,  will  magnify  the  error  and  enable 
accurate  adjustment  to  be  made. 

Again  you  want  to  find  out  whether  the  live- 
center  and  the  tail-center  of  that  lathe  are  in  perfect 
alignment  now  that  that  piece  is  chucked.  Well,  if 


24  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

you  will  take  a  piece  of  iron  that  will  reach  from  the 
tail-center  to  some  point  on  the  outer  part  of  the 
object  that  is  chucked,  and  will  make  a  cone  center 
in  one  end  of  it  and  put  that  on  the  tail-center  and 
let  the  other  end  touch  the  face  of  the  object  at  some 
point,  scribing  that  point,  and  will  then  turn  the 
lathe  90°  and  see  whether  the  end  of  the  gage-piece 
strikes  it  at  the  same  distance  from  the  live-center, 
and  will  then  turn  through  the  other  quarters  in  the 
same  way,  you  can  find  out  what  you  want  to 
know.  If  the  radial  distance  is  the  same  in  all  cases 
the  centers  are  all  right ;  but  if  the  gage  reaches 
further  out  at  one  quarter-position  than  at  the  other, 
they  are  not,  and  you  will  have  to  make  them  so 
before  you  go  on  with  the  work. 

A  Good  Alignment=Gage  for  a  lathe  may  be  made  by 
taking  an  iron  bar  half  as  long  as  the  diameter  of  the 


FIG.  22. — GOOD  ALIGNMENT-GAGE. 

face-plate,  and  having  at  one  end  an  enlargement  in 
its  width,  in  which  there  is  a  small   cylindrical  hole 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  25 

bored  through,  and  then  countersunk  from  both  sides, 
not  letting  the  two  countersinks  meet.  If  this  is 
put  to  the  centers  so  that  one  projects  into  each 
countersink  without  their  points  meeting,  the  bar  will 
stand  at  a  certain  distance  from  the  face-plate ;  this 
distance  being  measured,  and  the  bar  turned  about  so 
as  to  make  first  90°,  then  180°,  and  then  270°,  from  the 
first  position,  the  distance  of  its  face  from  that  of  the 
plate  should  be  the  same  in  all  four  positions.  If  they 
are  not,  the  lathe  is  out  of  line  ;  and  if  they  are,  it  is 
all  right  in  that  respect.  (See  Figiire  22) . 

Aligning  Engine-Lathes  is  done  in  the  Pond  Works 
by  having  on  the  face  of  the  face-plate  and  near  its 
perimeter  two  steps  ;  then  in  place  of  the  dead  center 
there  is  a  stud  carrying  an  arm  to  which  there  is  at- 
tached a  scriber  as  on  a  surface-gage.  This  scriber 
(which  is  curved  at  one  end  and  parallel  with  the 
lathe-centers  at  the  other,  and  may  be  turned  end  for 
end)  is  adjusted  so  as  to  touch  the  top  of  one  of  the 
steps  on  the  face-plate  ;  then  it  is  swung  around  180°. 
If  it  touches  the  same  step  at  the  same  point  in  its 
width,  the  tail-stock  is  of  the  right  hight.  Bringing 
it  to  the  quarter-points  will  also  show  whether  or  not 
the  tail-stock  is  set  right  side  wise.  Reversing  the 
needle  and  bringing  it  so  that  it  touches  the  face  of 
one  of  the  steps  on  the  face-plate,  if  it  just  touches 
at  top  and  bottom  as  well  as  at  the  two  sides,  the 
tail-spindle  is  in  line.  The  larger  the  face-plate  the 
more  readily  the  error  may  be  found. 

Handy  Lathe=Chuck.  For  drilling  holes  radially 
in  a  cylindrical  bar,  where  they  all  must  meet  in  the 
center  and  be  accurately  spaced,  in  place  of  the  dead 
center,  there  is  inserted  in  the  tail-spindle  of  the 
lathe  a  chuck  having  its  end  provided  with  V  grooves 


26  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

which  are  made  true  with  the  line  of  centers  of  the 
lathe,  so  that  when  the  work  is  laid  in  them  they  will 
be  held  true.  It  may  be  well  to  have  two  grooves, 
one  for  large  and  one  for  small  work,  so  that  the  side 
of  the  shaft  to  be  drilled  will  not  pass  within  the 
fork. 

Setting  a  Lathe  Parallel.  After  doing  taper  work 
it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  bring  the  lathe  quickly 
back  for  parallel  turning  ;  particularly  where  the 
tail-stock  does  not  rest  on  V's  and  is  a  loose  fit 
between  the  ways.  If  the  work  to  be  turned  parallel 
is  already  roughed  out  parallel,  the  setting  may  be 
facilitated  by  bringing  the  point  of  a  pointed  tool 
against  the  work,  and  winding  the  slide-rest  along. 
If  the  work  is  not  already  roughed  out  parallel,  a 
parallel  mandrel  may  be  set  in  the  lathe  first  and  this 
test  applied  to  it. 

Backing  off  Hilling-Cutters  is  an  operation  which 
is  as  troublesome  as  it  is  necessary,  under  the  ordi- 
nary methods  of  working,  and  with  the  usual  appli- 
ances about  the  average  machine  shop.  A  device 
for  doing  this  properly  and  with  no  trouble  is  so 
constructed  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  place  the 
cutter  on  an  arbor  in  the  ordinary  lathe,  in  the  usual 
way,  to  put  the  arbor  on  the  lathe-centers  with  a 
driving-pin  in  the  slot  in  the  face-plate,  start  the 
lathe  and  feed  in  the  tool  by  the  cross-feed  screw  as 
in  a  plain  job  of  turning. 

Referring  to  Figure  23,  the  forming  tool  Tis  held 
in  the  tool-post  in  the  usual  way  ;  the  cutter  is  borne 
by  a  sleeve  turning  on  an  arbor  which  has  centers 
slightly  eccentric,  i.  e.,  as  the  arbor  turns  in  the 
lathe  upon  the  centers  it  has  an  eccentric  motion  of 
the  required  play  necessary  to  give  the  cutter  a 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHA  T.  2 7 

motion  to  and  from  the  tool  by  which  it  is  backed 
off.  This  arbor  A  turns  freely  within  the  sleeve  B 
upon  which  the  cutter  is  placed,  and  while  the  arbor 
turns  with  the  lathe,  being  driven  direct  by  the  lever 
L  and  driver  D,  the  sleeve  is  driven  intermittently 
by  means  of  a  ratchet  wheel  M,  which  receives  its 
motion  from  an  eccentric,  through  the  eccentric- strap 
N)  to  which  is  attached  the  pawl  0.  The  arm  a  is 


FIG.  23. — BACKING  OFF  MILLING-CUTTERS.    (BALZER.) 

for  the  purpose  of  keeping  a  friction  on  the  ratchet- 
Avheel  M  to  prevent  the  sleeve  B  from  rotating  con- 
tinuously with  the  lathe,  the  desired  amount  of  friction 
being  adjusted  by  the  nut  b.  Between  the  arm  a,  the 
ratchet,  and  the  nut  b  are  two  fiber  washers  to  pre- 
vent unnecessary7  wear. 

The  throw  of  the  eccentric  which  drives  the  ratchet 
can  be  decreased  or  increased  in  order  to  change  the 


28  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

travel  of  the  pawl  0  to  correspond  to  the  number 
of  teeth  desired  in  the  cutter.  This  is  adjusted  by 
a  lever  L,  (not  shown  in  the  cut). 

Thus  the  cycle  of  operations  of  the  device  is  as 
follows : — 

Suppose  the  tool  to  be  starting  at  what  is  to  be  the 
cutting  edge  of  a  tooth  in  the  cutter,  the  latter  is 
slowly  rotated  and  at  the  same  time  moved  toward 
the  tool  to  give  the  required  clearance.  When  the 
next  gap  in  the  cutter  is  reached,  it  stops  rotating 
and  at  the  same  time  recedes  from  the  tool  until 
time  for  the  cut  to  begin  on  the  next  tooth,  the  lathe 
running  steadily  all  the  time  and  making  as  many 
revolutions  as  there  are  teeth  in  the  cutter,  while 
the  cutter  rotates  but  once. 

As  the  arbor  A  is  continuous  from  end  to  end  of 
the  device,  the  cutter  is  held  quite  rigidly,  and  as  this 
arbor  is  in  precisely  the  same  position  upon  the 
centers  during  the  cut  upon  each  tooth,  all  the  teeth 
must  be  alike. 

This  device  will  back-off  cutters  having  9,  12,  1 8 
and  36  teeth,  by  setting  the  pawl  to  take  either  1,2, 
3  or  4  teeth  of  the  ratchet  at  each  rotation  of  the 
lathe-spindle.  The  pawl  can  be  set  by  loosening  the 
nut  on  the  left  side  of  the  tool  and  moving  either  to 
or  from  the  center,  to  change  the  eccentric- throw. 

Bell  Chucks.  The  Direct  Separator  Co.  has  occa- 
sion to  use  two  bell  chucks  on  the  lathe  for  every 
different  size  of  separator.  To  avoid  the  cost  of 
threading  these  numerous  chucks  on  the  lathe-spindle, 
the  plan  shown  in  Figure  24  has  been  adopted. 
The  chucks  are  simply  bored  and  faced  to  fit  the  nuts 
and  shoulder  of  the  lathe- spindle,  and  one  nut  does 
for  all  chucks. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


29 


To  remove  chucks  from  trie  lathe-spindle,  if  put 
on  in  the  ordinary  way,  is  troublesome  ;  but  with  the 
nut  shown  it  is  only  necessary  to  drive  the  ring  B  off 
the  conical  surface  of  the  nut  Ay  which  is  split  open; 
then  the  whole  can  be  run  off  by  hand.  In  the  work 
referred  to  where  a  piece  has  been  threaded  at  one 
end  and  as  it  is  held  in  the  chuck  (see  Figure  24)  it 
is  screwed  on  to  piece  Figure  26  to  thread  the  other 
end.  If  the  piece  were  allowed  to  screw  up  tight 
against  the  shoulder  as  at  A,  it  would  be  forced  up  so 
tight  as  to  come  off  hard.  To  avoid  this,  two  or 


FIGS.  24  to  27  inclusive. — BELL  CHUCKS  (DIRECT  SEPARATOR  Co  ). 

more  set-screws  as  at  B  are  screwed  up  tight  against 
their  heads,  and  the  points  faced  off  true.  The 
piece  to  be  threaded  is  allowed  to  screw  up  tight 
against  the  points  of  these  screws,  and  after  the  work 
is  finished,  slacking  back  the  set-screws  allows  the 
work  to  be  removed  readily. 

Figure  2  7  shows  the  application  of  the  same  prin- 
ciple to  a  plug  for  screwing  on  screwed  heads. 

A  Spring  Lathe=Chuck  for  brass-work,  used  by  the 
Hancock  Inspirator  Co.,  is  shown  complete  in  Figure 
28;  Figure  2  9  being  a  mid-section,  and  Figure  30  aside 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


view  of  the  split  gripping-piece  and  an  end  view  of  the 
split  piece.     It  has  only  three  pieces  :  A  screws  on. 


FIGS.  28  AND  29.— LATHE-CHUCK. 

the  spindle  and  takes  one  end  of  the  work  ;  C  grips 
it ;  B  screws  on  A  and  takes  the  other  end  of  (7.  This 
last  has  a  double  cone  D  Eand  is  split  in  three,  nearly 


FIG.  30.— SIDE  AND  END  OF  SPLIT  PIECES. 

full  length  (as  shown  at  F) ,  so  that  when  B  is  screwed 
on  it  the  two  cones  on  A  B  compress  C. 

Work-Drivers  for  Lathes.  The  ordinary  bent- tailed 
dog  tends  to  spring  long  and  slender  work  on  all  cuts 
and  even  heavy  short  work  on  roughing  cuts.  The 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


straight- tailed  dog  has  rather  less  of  this  tendency, 
especially  if  it  have  two  tails  and  is  driven  by  pins  in 


FIG.  31. — SECURING  DRIVING-PINS  TO  FACE-PLATES 
(S.  A.  WOODS  MCH.  Co.). 

the  face-plate.  The  face-plate  shown  in  Figure  31  is 
used  by  the  S.  A.  Woods  Co.     It  has  an  annular  T- 


FIG.  32  — TWO-PART  CLAMP-DOG. 

groove  with  a  cut  at  H  to  admit  two  nuts  into  which 
are  screwed  the  pins   P,   which  may  be   tightened 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


lightly  so  as  to  come  to  an  equal  bearing  on  the 
clamps,  under  the  pressure  of  the  work ;  after  which 
they  may  be  tightened. 

Another  way  is  shown  in  Figure  32,  being  a  two- 
part  clamp  with  driving-pins  P  in  holes  equi-distant 
from  the  lathe-center ;  but  in  this  as  in  the  last  there 
may  be  unequal  drive. 

The  Clements  driver,  shown  in  Figure  33,  has  in  the 
driving-plate  F  four  slots,  two  of  which,  A  and  5, 
pass  clear  through  to  admit  shouldered  bolts  C  and 


r 


FIG.  33 — LATHE-DRIVER  (FRANK  CLEMENTS). 

D,  which  fit  firmly  to  the  lathe  face-plate  but  easily 
in  the  plate  F. 

The  other  two  slots  are  T-shaped,  receiving  nuts 
into  which  are  screwed  the  pins  P  P.  The  bolts  C  and 
D  drive  .F,  and  the  pins  P  drive  the  work,  the  motion 
of  E  on  the  lathe  face-plate  equalizing  the  drive. 

Driving  Work  Held  in  Lathe-Bearings.  In  some  of 
Sir  Joseph  Whitworth's  lathes,  as  for  turning  fly- 
wheels and  their  shafts,  the  shafts  run  in  their  bear- 
ings instead  of  on  centers ;  this  causes  the  work  to 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


53 


be  true  with  the  journals  (although  it  does  not  neces- 
sarily make  the  wheel  balanced) .  For  driving  the 
shaft  on  such  work  it  is  well  to  have  a  *  *  wabbler  ' ' 
consisting  of  a  piece  having  one  end  squared  and  the 
other  end  cupped  with  a  square  socket  to  receive  the 
squared  end  of  the  driving-shaft ;  the  small  squared 
end  of  the  "wabbler"  fitting  into  a  squared  socket 
fastened  to  the  driven  shaft  by  set-screws. 

With  this  wabbler  it  makes  no  difference  whether 
the  driving  and  the  driven  shaft  are  in  line  or  not. 

A  Convenient  Lathe-Driver  for  small  cored  pipe 
and  cock  work  is  that  employed  by  the  Hancock  In- 
spirator shops  and  shown  in  Figure  34.  The  hub  IT, 
screwed  on  the  driving- spindle,  carries  the  rods  Band 


FIG.  34 — LATHE-DRIVER  FOR  SMALL  CORED  PIPE  AND  COCK 
WORK  (HANCOCK  INSPIRATOR  Co.). 

B^ ,  each  of  which  is  adjustable  for  length  so  that  B 
may  be  set  out  to  suit  the  work  and  B*  set  out  suffi- 
ciently to  balance  B  and  D  .  The  driving-arm  D  is 
adjustable  along  B.  The  other  end  of  the  work  is 


34 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


shown  centered  in  a  loose  conical  frustum  such  as 
that  shown  in  detail  in  Figures  12  and  13. 

A  Handy  Eccentric  Vise  for  holding  a  special  job  is 
shown  in  Figures  35  and  36,  as  it  was  designed  by 
Foreman  Tretch,  of  the  Riehle  Testing  Machine  Co. 
A  great  number  of  pieces  /  were  to  be  faced  on  both 


FIGS.  35  AND  36.— HANDY  ECCENTRIC  VISE  (RiEHiJs  BROS.). 

sides  i  and  2  ;  and  as  the  milling-machines  were  busy, 
the  device  was  arranged  to  be  used  on  the  cross- 
slide  of  a  lathe.  As  the  pieces  were  brass,  high 
rotation-speed  was  used  on  the  milling-cutters  which 
straddled  the  sample  /. 

The  inclined  plane  admitted  of  adjustment  as  to 
height  to  suit  the  cutter-diameter,  and  the  pieces  were 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  35 

set  and  clamped  by  the  eccentric-roller,  and  bell-crank 
lever  in  a  minimum  amount  of  time,  and  a  consider- 
able saving  in  output  was  effected  over  a  moderate- 
speed  milling-machine. 

Turning  Large  Bars  which  are  liable  to  spring  may 
be  rendered  more  easy  and  accurate  by  having  a  two- 
part  "doctor"  or  center-rest  with  a  very  large  open- 
ing, which  is  bored  out  on  the  lathe  so  that  it  will  be 
axially  true,  and  then  the  bore  recessed  the  same  as 
an  ordinary  eccentric-strap.  Inside  this  there  rotates 
a  ring  representing  the  eccentric-sheave,  and  having 
on  its  face  projections  by  which  the  piece  to  be 
worked  is  gripped,  so  that  its  ring  rotates  with  the 
work-piece,  in  the  doctor  proper.  This  is  a  Califor- 
nia wrinkle. 

In  Turning  Shafting  (which  no  one  does  nowadays 
unless  he  has  to,  as  it  may  usually  be  bought  so 
much  cheaper  than  any  one  can  make  it  who  does 
not  make  a  specialty  of  it)  the  work  may  be 
cheapened  and  improved  by  having,  instead  of  a 
center- rest  that  does  no  work,  one  which  will  rough 
off  the  bar ;  in  other  words,  by  having  an  internal 
mill — fluted  and  tempered,  and  ground  to  the  size 
desired. 

Tool=Rests.  At  the  old  Freeland  Works  they  used 
to  have  lathe- tool  rests,  the  top  of  which  had  a  hub 
threaded  externally  to  receive  a  ring  nut  around 
whose  edge  there  were  numerous  holes  to  receive  a 
pin  for  operating  the  nut.  The  tool-post  was  central 
in  the  hub.  When  the  tool  was  loose  the  ring  might 
be  operated  by  hand  ;  but  when  it  was  not  it  might  be 
gripped  and  the  ring  nut  operated  by  a  pin.  This  is 
good  for  large  lathes. 


36  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Brown  &  Sharpe  use  in  their  tool-posts  two  adjust- 
ing and  gripping  screws,  one  front  and  the  other 
back,  on  which  sits  a  gib  on  which  the  tool  is  placed. 
The  top  of  the  tool-post  slot  has  a  cylindrical  convex 
surface  so  that  it  will  bear  only  along  one  line  of  the 
tool ;  this  latter  being  supported  along  the  whole 
length  of  the  gib.  The  absence  of  a  set-screw  at  the 
top  of  the  post  enables  a  better  view  to  be  had  of  the 
tool. 

Stiff  Slide-Rests  may  be  made  by  having  the  slide 
overhanging  on  the  left  side  only,  so  that  when  it  is 
used  on  short  work  (which  is  the  most  common) , 
and  on  facing  work  (which  is  where  the  rest  requires 
to  be  stiffest),  the  non-overhanging  part  gets  the 
strain.  If  the  cross-slide  is  made  the  lower  one,  the 
rest  will  always  face  the  work  square,  even  if  the 
upper  slide  is  set  to  turn  taper.  The  tool  may  be 
clamped  by  two  bars,  each  of  which  has  two  screws, 
with  sufficient  space  left  at  the  ends  of  these  bars  on 
the  short  side  to  admit  of  the  tool  being  gripped 
between  their  free  ends  and  the  rest.  These  clamps 
are  more  convenient  for  boring  than  the  ordinary 
tool-post. 

Steady-Rest  for  Tapering    Work.     The    form    of 

steady-rest  shown  in  Figure  37  was  devised  at  the  old 
Freeland  Works  for  steadying  in  the  lathe  such 
square  taper  blanks  as  billiard  cues  are  made  of.  The 
usual  stand  has  bearing  in  it  a  ring  A,  that  has  four 
inward  projections  B  in  which  there  slide  easily  but 
closely  the  steadying^  jaws  C,  which  are  pressed  to 
the  work  by  spiral  springs.  These  jaws  thus  steady 
and  center  the  work  at  no  matter  what  point  in  its 
length,  and  have  the  advantage  that  they  can  lead 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


37 


instead   of  following   the   cutting- tool,   so  that  the 
work  is  steadied  on  both  sides  of  the  cut. 


FIG.  37.    STEADY-REST  (FREELAND). 

Breaking  of  Tool=Clamp    Bolts   sometimes   causes 
trouble  and  loss  of  temper,  and  is  apt  to  occur  not 


FIG.  38. — To  PREVENT  BREAKING  TOOL-CLAMP  BOLTS. 

only  where  the  work  is  roughly  handled,  but  with 
ordinary  handling  where  irregularly- shaped  tools  are 
used.  To  prevent  his,  such  appliances  as  are  shown 


33  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

in  Figure  38  may  be  used,  there  being  an  ordinary 
washer,  a  plano-convex  washer,  and  a  plano-concave 
nut.  With  these  there  is  play  enough  to  give  the 
bolts  a  better  show,  while  the  grip  is  as  tight  as  need 
be.  desired. 

Swivel  Tool-Holders  having  cutters  sc  adjustable 
that  they  can  not  only  be  swiveled  round  and  then 
fixed  to  any  desired  angle  but  be  made  to  project  at 
pleasure  to  any  required  distance  to  reach  and  cut 
into  all  sorts  of  difficult  and  awkward  curves  are  in 
use  by  Smith  &  Coventry,  of  Manchester  (Eng- 
land). The  steel  used  for  the  cutters  is  of  a  deep  V 
section,  having  its  lower  angle  slightly  rounded. 

Angle-Gages  for  Lathe=Tools  will  be  found  desirable 
to  have  about  the  place,  One  block  may  have  in  it 
half  a  dozen  notcher ;  say  35,  45,  60  and  90  degrees 
with  one  side  perpendicular  to  the  block-face ;  one 
notch  for  parting- tools,  etc.  Reversing  the  plate 
makes  the  gage  right  for  tools  of  opposite  u  hand," 
and  the  perpendicular-sided  notches  are  of  course  all 
right  for  angles  where  one  side  is  perpendicular. 
Smith  &  Coventry  seem  to  be  the  originators  of 
this. 

To  Take  a  "  Hog  Cut "  on  very  small  and  compara- 
tively long  shafts,  and  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  shift- 
ing a  ring  doctor  along  as  would  be  necessary  where 
the  whole  length  of  the  shaft  was  to  be  turned  down, 
provide  a  hard  steel  angle-block  which  will  receive 
the  thrust  of  the  tool,  placing  this  at  such  a  point 
that  it  will  just  take  in  the  shaft  between  it  and  the 
tool,  when  the  right  size  is  reached.  This  is  held 
by  the  tool-post  and  enables  the  entire  amount  to  be 
taken  off  in  one  cut,  when  it  is  started.  The  crotch 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  39 

of  the  angle  may  be  directly  opposite  the  tool ,  or  one 
of  its  sides  may  be  vertical  and  the  other  horizontal ; 
the  angle  being  ninety  degrees  in  either  case. 

Tool- Post  Slots  in  lathes  are  usually  too  small ; 
especially  in  these  days  when  many  machinists  prefer 
to  use  a  "  patent"  tool-holder  of  iron,  holding  a 
u  bit  "  of  steel.  But  the  post-slots  are  too  small, 
not  for  this  reason  alone,  but  because  they  do  not 
enable  the  use  of  tools  large  enough  to  carry  away 
the  heat  fast  enough.  I  agree  with  the  late  Robert 
Briggs,  of  Morris,  Tasker  &  Co.,  that  the  smallest 
solid  working- tool  for  iron  should  be  \\  inches, 
with  f-inch  steel  in  the  shank  ;  and  if  inches  by 
i  J  inches  is  not  excessive  for  tools  for ;  30- inch  lathe ; 
while  for  a  48-inch  lathe  there  should  be  a  slot  2} 
inches  or  even  3  inches  by -2 1  inches,  with  a  2 -inch 
screw. 

Feed=Gage  for  Lathes.  Ordinarily,  as  where  two 
nuts  are  used  for  feed-gages  for  a  number  of  pieces, 
it  is  necessary  to  take  all  the  roughing-cuts  first  and 
then  finish.  This  makes  at  extra  cost  and  delay  for 
chucking,  which  may  be  done  away  with  by  having 
a  third  nut,  split  so  as  to  clamp  when  necessary ; 
setting  this  to  the  finishing  size,  and  so  first  taking 
the  rough  cut,  then  throwing  in  the  split  nut  and 
taking  the  finish  cut  to  gage. 

Chucking  Shafting=Boxes.  In  the  Lane  &  Bodley 
shops,  when  it  is  required  to  turn  the  spherical  face 
of  a  shaft-box  true  to  the  axis  of  the  box-bore,  a 
half-round  mandrel  is  fastened  to  the  face-plate,  and 
the  half  bearing  is  clamped  on  it  by  bolts  and  plates, 
so  that  if  the  half-round  mandrel  is  set  true  the  bear- 
ings will  be  true  also.  The  tool-point  is  made  to 


40  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

travel  in  the  arc  of  the  circle  by  a  former  on  the  side 
of  the  cross-slide.  The  slide  is  kept  in  contact  with 
the  former  by  a  weight  and  cord. 


FIG.  39. — CENTER-DRILLING  DEVICE.     (Top  VIEW.) 


FIG.  40. — CENTER-DRILLING  DEVICE.    (END  VIEW.) 

Center=DrilIing  Device.     The  rig  here  shown,  and 
which  I  believe  originated  in  Hartford ,   consists  of  a 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  41 

stand  S  bolted  to  the  lathe-shears  and  carrying  studs 
that  act  as  a  guide  to  the  head  G,  which  has  a  hole 
coned  at  each  end.  G  has  arms  which  slide  on  the 
pins  P,  and  against  two  spiral  springs  which  sur- 
round them.  The  work  is  forced  up  to  G  by  a  cup 
chuck  D  in  the  tail-spindle  T.  It  allows  the  use  of 
any  kind  of  a  drill. 


FIG.  41.— COMBINED  DRILL  AND  COUNTERSINK. 

A  Combined  Countersink  and  Drill  is  shown  in 
Figure  41,  the  drill  passing  through  the  countersink 
and  being  fastened  by  the  screw  S. 

Center=Reamers.  There  is  no  question  about  it 
that  the  best  angle  for  lathe-centers  is  60  degrees ; 
and  there  should  be  no  more  question  that  work- 
centers  should  be  the  same,  and  should  be  centers 
instead  of  merely  depressions  somewhere  in  the  end 
of  the  work. 


FIG.  42.— CENTER  REAMER.     (60°  ANGLE) 


What  every  shop  should  have  is  a  center-reamer 
such  as  is  shown  in  Figure  42,  which  is  made  and 
ground  accurately  to  a  6o-degree  angle,  and  which 
will  insure  that  the  center  in  the  work  is  exactly  the 
proper  angle. 

Rose-Bit  Reamer.  In  the  Dickson  Manufacturing 
Company's  locomotive  shops  they  have  a  reamer  which 


42  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

is  somewhat  similar  to  a  rose-bit,  the  cutting  being 
done  by  beveled  edges  at  the  end  of  the  tool,  and  not 
by  flutes.  To  enable  it  to  discharge  its  chips  and  not 
get  clogged  there  are  two  or  more  S-shaped  grooves 
crossing  each  other  on  the  end  of  the  tool ;  the  chips 
curling  away  from  the  cutting  edges  into  these  grooves 
and  thus  escaping.  The  edge  of  the  flutes  is  radial. 

Gage  for  Turning  Tapers.  "  Cut  and  try"  is  no 
way  to  turn  tapers,  especially  if  there  is  a  collar  on  a 
male  piece  that  is  to  be  tapered.  To  facilitate  such 
work  it  is  best  to  have  a  gage  like  that  shown  in. 


FIG.  43. — GAGE  FOR  TURNING  TAPEKS. 

Figure  43,  on  which  there  are  two  marks,  A  and  B^ 
the  distance  between  which  represents  the  amount  to 
be  allowed  to  make  a  drive  fit. 

Centering-Device.  Back  in  1878  Mr.  A.  L,.  Crosby 
showed  to  me  a  centering-device  for  round  stock,  cut 
to  length  in  a  cutting-off  machine.  As  may  be  seen 
from  the  illustration,  Figure  44,  there  is  a  cone  or  cup 
^4,  having  a  handle  in  which  latter  there  is  a  spiral 
spring  0  which  presses  out  a  center  point  B.  If  the 
bore  in  which  C  plays  is  at  right  angles  to  the  rim  of 
-4,  and  is  properly  centered  with  relation  thereto,  the 
cone  will  bring  the  center  of  objects  of  circular  section 
to  the  point  of  B — always  provided  that  this  is  central 
with  B  itself. 

Cast-Iron  Lathe-Tools.  After  you  have  got  tired 
paying  a  tool-maker  to  forge  and  grind  up  tools  for 


MACHINE  SHOP  CfrAT. 


turning  off  those  cylinder-heads,  you  will  try  cast-iron 
tools,  made  out  of  car- wheel  iron  and  nicely  chilled. 
They  will  take  a  greedy  bite  and  not  get  discouraged  ; 
will  stand  four  or  five  grindings,  and  will  not  require 
grinding  so  often  as  the  steel  tools. 


FIG.  44. — CENTERING  DEVICE. 

Turning  Brass  Balls.  If  you  have  brass  balls  to 
turn  down  smooth  enough  to  be  used  for  check-valves 
you  may  do  it  best  (after  the  tit  has  been  cut  off,  by 
which  they  were  held  for  a  preliminary  turning)  by  a 
ring  or  short  tube  of  tool-steel  bored  and  ground  on  the 
face  so  that  its  inner  edge  has  good  cutting  capacity, 
and  capped  with  a  wooden  disk  so  as  to  make  it  handy 
to  be  held  against  the  ball,  while  the  latter  is  rotated 
by  means  of  a  wooden  cup  chuck  covering  about  two- 
fifths  of  its  surface. 

Clearance  and  Rake  of  lathe  and  planer-tools  may 


44 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


very  readily  be  compared  and  noted  by  setting1  them 
on  their  backs  on  a  level  surface  and  setting  an 
ordinary  steel  square  up  on  edge  alongside  of  them. 

Chasers  would  seem  at  first  thought  to  be  antiquated 
devices,  and  in  shops  of  the  middle  class  they  are 
considered  absurd ;  but  they  are  still  to  be  found  in 
country  machine-shops  and  in  establishments  of  world- 


FIGS.  45  AND  46. — CHASERS  (PRATT  &  WHITNEY  Co.). 

wide  renown.  The  Pratt  &  Whitney  Company  uses 
them  of  the  form  shown  in  Figures  45  and  46  for 
roughing  out.  The  chaser  itself,  A,  being  short,  is 
cheap  to  make  ;  the  clamp  B  is  recessed  in  the  middle 
so  that  it  bears  only  at  the  ends  and  hence  grips  very 
firmly  ;  while  the  curved  lip  C  adjusts  it  fairly  well  on 
the  chaser. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  45 

> 

Turning  Chilled  Rolls.  Those  who  have  essayed 
turning  chilled  rolls  for  the  first  time  have  not  been 
pleased  with  the  experiment  and  usually  not  satisfied 
with  their  success.  It  is  an  art  in  itself;  an  art  which 
perhaps  the  late  Morton  Poole,  of  Wilmington,  Dela- 
ware, did  more  than  any  other  one  man  to  bring  to 
perfection — and  to  perfection  he  certainly  brought  the 
grinding  of  chilled  calender-rolls  for  paper-making. 
Before,  however,  the  grinding  operation  is  commenced 
there  must  be  as  nearly  perfect  work  done  by  the  lathe 
as  it  is  possible  for  such  an  imperfect  machine-tool  as 


FIG.  47.— TOOL  FOR  CHILLED  ROLLS  (J.  MORTON  POOLE  &  Co.). 

a  lathe  to  perform  ;  but  most  tools  for  this  work  have 
the  double  disadvantage  that  they  do  not  do  good 
work  and  do  not  work  fast  enough.  The  work 
reminds  one  of  the  Scotchman's  porridge,  ucold, 
burned,  sour  and  gritty  ;  and  damn  it,  there  was  not 
enough  of  it."  But  by  the  use  of  a  simple  tool,  such 
as  is  shown  in  Figure  47,  the  work  is  rendered  very 
easy,  and  its  quality,  for  lathe- work,  leaves  nothing  to 
complain  of. 

A  plain  bar  of  tool-steel  is  taken,  about  one  and 
one-quarter  inches  square,  and  about  four  inches  of  it 
cut  off,  and  then  fluted  on  each  side  with  a  semi-circular 


46  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

channel  of  about  three-eighths  inch  radius.  All  four 
sides  of  the  bar  being  then  ground  so  that  the  four 
angles  are  exactly  90  degrees  each,  the  tool  is  ready  to 
be  clamped  in  the  tool-holder  and  set  to  work.  It  does 
not  remove  curls  of  material,  but  takes  off  a  series  of 
brittle  thread-like  turnings,  about  the  size  and  general 
shape  of  pine-needles.  When  one  band  four  inches 
wide  is  turned,  the  tool  is  moved  along. 

Boring  Curved  Nozzles  with  straight  tools  is  not  so 
difficult  as  might  be  thought.  The  tool  required  is  a 
simple  wedge  having  a  thickness  equal  to  the  smallest 
diameter  of  the  nozzle,  and  a  diagonal  at  the  base, 
equal  to  the  largest  nozzle-diameter.  These  tools  are 
readily  sharpened.  It  was  about  1873  or  1874  that  I 
had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  competitive  tests  of  steam 
nre-rengines  and  with  the  improvement  of  such  engines, 
and  when  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  an  engine  was 
based  on  its  beating  the  stream  thrown  by  another, 
and  when  also  there  was  from  #5,000  to  $10,000  bet 
on  the  result  as  a  side  issue,  the  nozzle  played  (no  pun 
intended)  quite  an  important  part.  I  had  a  number 
of  nozzles  made  for  this  purpose,  many  of  them  at  the 
Pusey  &  Jones  shops  by  Harry  English  (who  was 
one  oi  the  best  brass  turners  I  ever  saw) .  English 
made  for  me,  from  my  sketches,  nozzles  having  a 
curved  taper,  with  which  the  stream  of  one  engine 
was  raised  from  307  to  318  feet  with  the  same  conditions 
of  steam-pressure,  wind,  etc.  There  are  now  several 
hundred  curved  gun-metal  nozzles  thus  bored  in  use 
in  American  fire  departments,  where  they  drove  out 
the  much  vaunted  *  '  ring  * '  and  * ( straight- taper ' ' 
nozzles,  and  have  never  been  excelled  except  by  some 
glass-lined  tips  which  I  brought  out  still  later,  and 
with  which  some  of  the  world's  records  were  made. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  47 

Turret= Lathe  Tool.  A  very  efficient  tool  for  use  in 
a  turret-lathe  of  either  the  "  Monitor  "  or  the  4t  Revol- 
ver ' '  type  is  one  which  I  saw  in  use  in  the  Brown  & 
Sharpe  shops.  It  is  intended  to  do  better  work  and 
more  work  than  is  ordinarily  done  with  a  plain  tool 
for  reducing  stock. 

Ordinarily,  there  is  a  cylindrical  head  fastened  to  a 
cylindrical  shank,  which  latter  fits  into  the  socket  in 
the  lathe-turret ;  this  head  is  hollow  and  bears  three 
tools  which  project  radially  inward  and  which,  as  the 
tool  is  presented  to  the  end  of  the  stock  to  be  reduced 
in  diameter,  crowd  off  material  in  a  way  and  at  a  rate 
which  are  far  from  satisfactory.  In  the  tool  which 
attracted  my  attention  in  the  Brown  &  Sharpe  shops 
these  inwardly  projecting  cutters  are  not  radial  but  are 
inclined  so  as  to  give  them  rake,  so  that  each  one  acts 
like  a  properly  formed  and  set  lathe- tool ;  and  the 
effect  is  a  very  greedy  yet  smooth  cut,  consuming  less 
power  for  a  given  cut,  and  heating  the  material  less, 
also,  for  a  stated  amount  removed  per  minute,  than 
where  the  ordinary  cutters  are  used.  Half  the  rough- 
ing is  done  with  a  head  having  three  such  raking 
cutters ;  the  finishing  is  done  with  one  having  one 
cutting  and  two  steady  ing  or  centering- tools,  the  result 
being  a  fast  "  sweet"  cut  and  handsome  finish. 

Boring  and  Threading  should  be  greatly  facilitated 
by  the  use  of  a  tool  which  I  have  seen  in  some  of  the 
Eastern  shops,  and  which  I  show  here,  as  applied  in 
the  tool-post.  There  is  an  offset  bar  of  drop- forged 
steel  which  is  inserted  in  the  post ;  this  has  a  split 
bore  through  which  is  clamped  a  round  bar  of  cold- 
rolled  steel,  turned  down  and  threaded  at  one  end  to 
receive  either  one  of  two  caps.  One  of  these  caps  has 
a  hole  through  which  a  self-hardening  steel  cutter  may 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


be  thrust  at  right  angles;  the  other,  a  cap  for  the 
reception  of  a  similar  cutter  at  an  angle  of  45°. 
Centered  in  the  end  of  the  rolled-steel  -bar  there  is  a 
tool-steel  pin,  against  which,  when  the  cap  is  screwed 


FIG.  48. — ARMSTRONG  TOOL- HOLDER. 

up,  a  similar  tool-steel  pin  is  sere  wed,  holding  the  cut- 
ter in  place .  (  See  Figure  48  ) .  There  is  a  special  wrench 
(see  Figure  49)  the  round  side  of  which  slips  over  the 
cap  on  the  end  of  the  bar,  the  slot  engaging  the  cutter 
by  which  the  cap  is  screwed  up,  pressing  the  cutter 


«'     r    If 


FIG.  49. — WRENCH  FOR  TOOL-HOLDER. 

against  the  hardened-steel  pin.  The  square  side  fits 
the  steel  collar-screw  in  the  split  hub.  Such  a  tool 
should  do  away  largely  with  forging,  dressing  and 
tempering,  and  save  tool-steel,  time  and  annoyance. 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT. 


49 


Center- Holes  for  lathe-work  should  be  countersunk 
only  enough  to  permit  the  piece  to  be  squared  off ; 
then  they  should  be  countersunk  again,  because  if  the 
piece  is  not  square-ended  at  the  time  of  the  first 
countersinking,  the  countersink  will  cut  more  to  one 
side  than  to  the  other,  leaving,  when  the  piece  is  cut 
off  square,  a  wider  bevel  on  one  side  than  on  the 
other;  then  the  axis  will  be  changing  as  the  piece 
wears. 

Centering  Lathe-Work.  ( c  Things  are  not  always 
what  they  seern."  One  of  the  cases  in  which  this  is 
so  is  where  work  in  a  lathe  is  calipered  at  only  one 
diameter,  or  that  diameter  is  found  at  which  the  sides 
are  equi-distant  from  the  center  as  shown  by  their 
touching  the  lathe- tool  equally.  The  center  thus 
found  will  not  necessarily  give  the  largest  piece  that 
can  be  got  out  of  the  stick.  For  instance,  in  Figure 
50,  the  points  a  and  b  are  equally  distant  from  the 


b  h 

FIGS.  50  AND  5 1. — CENTERING  LATHE-WORK. 

temporary  center  P  ;  but  by  reason  of  the  nearness  of 
the  point  €,  a  much  smaller  cylinder  could  be  turned 
out  than  if  Q  were  the  center.  The  same  thing  is 


50  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

shown  again  in  Figure  51  at  B,  where  c  and  h  are 
equally  distant  from  the  point  R,  but  a  very  much 
smaller  circle  can  be  inscribed  with  that  as  a  center 
than  by  using  S.  In  the  piece  A  the  points  e  and  / 
are  much  better  indications  than  a  and  b  ;  and  in  a 
piece  of  the  shape  of  B  there  should  be  three  points 
calipered. 

Tool=Points  Breaking.  If  you  have  ever  had  the 
point  of  a  lathe- tool  break  off  in  cutting  V- threads, 
especially  on  tool-steel,  you  will  be  glad  to  try, 
next  time,  the  plan  of  filing  with  a  three-cornered  file, 
on  the  same  inclination  as  the  thread,  a  place  about 
the  depth  of  the  thread  for  the  tool  to  run  into. 

Fluting  with  the  Lathe.  To  cut  reamer-flutes  in  a 
lathe,  grind  a  side- tool  with  the  desired  clearance  and 
set  its  top  edge  level  with  the  lathe-center,  divide  the 
spandrel-gear  circumference  into  as  many  parts  as 
there  are  to  be  flutes,  and  mark  the  division-points 
with  chalk ;  then  traverse  the  lathe-carriage  back  and 
forth  by  hand,  using  the  spandrel-gear  as  an  index  to 
get  the  distance  between  flutes  right.  Divide  the 
shank  of  the  reamer  into  quarters  by  means  of  the 
spandrel-gear,  using  a  pointer- tool.  For  a  half-round 
taper  reamer  it  will  be  necessary  to  be  sure  that  the 
lathe-centers  are  set  straight  before  commencing,  else 
the  flutes  will  not  be  equally  spaced. 

Cutting  Speed  of  Lathe=Tools.  In  calculating  the 
number  of  feet  per  minute  at  which  a  lathe-tool  is 
cutting,  measure  the  perimeter  before  the  cut  and  after, 
and  multiply  the  mean  of  these  two  measures  by  the 
number  of  rotations  per  minute. 

Centering  and  Squaring  up  Connecting=Rods.  I  go 
into  Squibob's  shop  and  find  a  man  having  a  connect- 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  51 

ing-rod  to  center  and  square  up,  laying  out  a  center 
•with  a  pair  of  dividers  from  the  square  end,  driving  in 
a  center  punch,  putting  the  rod  in  the  lathe,  marking 
the  rod  on  the  high  side,  dropping  it  on  a  block,  and 
with  a  small  half-round  chisel  digging  the  ' c  center ' ' 
(Heaven  save  the  mark  ! )  over  to  the  side  called  for  by 
the  chalk-mark,  then  putting  it  in  the  lathe  for  another 
chalk-mark,  and  so  on.  Then  when  the  rod  runs 
* c  about ' '  right,  he  takes  a  racket  and  reams  a  center 
on  which  to  turn  the  rod.  If  the  rod  is  too  long  he 
squares  the  ends  to  the  desired  length.  Then  he  cuts 
off  the  projecting  u  centers/'  and  proceeds  to  re-center 
the  rod. 


FIG.  52. — SQUARING  UP  CONNECTING-RODS  (DELAMATER  WORKS). 

Suppose  that  we  try  another  way,  taught  me  by 
Superintendent  Brown  of  the  Delamater  Works.  We 
will  say  that  the  rod  is  about  six  feet  long.  I^et  us 
put  it  on  a  planer-bed  or  drill  bed-plate,  or  even  on  a 
good  level  board,  and  place  under  each  neck  a  V  block 
as  shown  in  Figure  52,  so  that  the  rod  may  be  turned 
over  without  much  changing  its  position.  Now  tak- 
ing a  scribe-block,  let  us  draw  a  line  aa  across  the 
upper  side  of  the  square  end  ;  then  turning  the  rod  one- 
fourth  way  around  as  shown  by  the  arrow,  scribe  the 
line  bb;  then  again  turn  and  scribe,  until  the  lines  cc, 
dd,  are  brought  on  top.  Now  we  have  enclosed  in 


52  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

these  lines  a  square  the  center  of  which  is  in  the  center 
line  of  the  neck  ;  but  this  need  not  be  changed  in  order 
to  make  the  part  run  true  in  the  lathe.  If  the  end  of 
the  rod  is  to  be  finished  to  2}  by  4^  inches,  we  will 
take  the  center  x,  from  which  to  scribe  two  circles,  one 
2\  inches  in  diameter  and  the  other  4^  inches.  Then 
with  the  scribe-block  on  the  surface-gage,  we  draw  a 
parallelogram  on  the  rod-end.  From  this  we  can  tell 
whether  or  not  the  rod-end  will  clean  up  to  the  center 
x ;  and  if  it  will  not,  we  can  caliper  the  neck  and  find 
how  much  stock  will  have  to  come  off ;  then  we  can 
draw  the  center  to  suit. 

If  the  rod  should  be  left  by  the  smith  say  an  inch 
too  long,  we  take  a  tit-drill  and  drill  in  far  enough  so 
that  it  will  leave  about  1-32  inch  to  square  off  in  the 
lathe ;  then  we  can  remove  the  tit-drill  and  use  a 
countersink  for  the  final  center  on  which  the  rod  is  to 
turn.  This  latter  work  can  be  done  in  a  horizontal 
drill  or  in  an  old  lathe,  by  having  a  drill-chuck  fitted 
to  the  spindle. 

Centering  Lathe- Work.  Sykes  has  just  put  a  shaft 
in  a  lathe  without  drilling  and  countersinking  the 
centers,  and  the  result  is  that  he  is  doing  work  which 
is  a  trifle  out  of  true,  and  at  the  same  time  he  is  en- 
larging the  lathe-centers  and  making  it  less  possible 
for  him  to  do  correct  work  on  other  jobs  that  follow. 
It  is  about  the  same  way  all  over  his  shop,  and  the 
result  is  that  it  takes  a  man  who  has  run  any  tool  in 
his  place  to  get  any  sort  of  work  out  of  that  tool.  A 
new  man  coming  in  would  appear  to  be  a  botch 
although  he  had  come  from  a  good  place  in  one  of  the 
best  shops  in  the  country,  while  an  old  u  mossback  " 
who  knows  how  to  humor  Sykes'  lathes  and  things 
will  get  creditable  work  out  of  them. 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  53 

Ballard  goes  to  the  other  extreme  ;  he  puts  about  a 
three-quarter-inch  hole  in  the  end  of  a  two-inch  shaft. 

Truing  Rubber  Rolls.  Rubber  rolls,  such  as  those 
used  for  the  feed  of  various  machines,  and  in  leather- 
splitting  machinery,  require  to  be  trued  up  from  time 
to  time ;  and  this  is  best  done  by  grinding.  This  can 
be  done  with  a  very  coarse  open  emery-wheel,  the  face 
of  which  is  kept  constantly  chalked  to  prevent  what 
would  correspond  to  pinning  in  filing. 

Turning  Vulcanized  Fiber.  Those  who  are  experi- 
menting with  vulcanized  fiber  bearings,  with  and 
without  graphite,  and  with  other  things  in  which  they 
find  it  necessary  to  turn  or  bore  paper  or  papier  mache , 
often  wonder  what  is  the  best  turning-tool  for  paper. 
There  is  no  special  best  tool.  Take  what  there  is,  but 
see  that  it  is  sharp  and  has  very  little  clearance,  as 
the  character  of  the  material  is  such  that  the  tool  has 
a  great  tendency  to  dig  in  and  meets  very  little  resist- 
ance to  prevent  it.  One  principal  trouble  is  that  bear- 
ing in  mind  the  supposed  analogy  between  paper  and 
wood,  as  compared  with  iron,  they  undertake  to  turn 
paper  with  a  wood- turning  tool,  or  with  an  iron-turn- 
ing tool  run  at  a  wood- turning  speed.  If  they  will 
only  run  the  lathe  or  boring-mill  with  boring- tools,  at 
a  speed  just  a  trifle  in  advance  of  that  necessary  for 
cast  iron  with  the  same  diameter  of  work,  good  results 
should  be  obtained. 

For  Key=Seating  a  Shaft  or  an  Axle  while  in  the 
lathe,  there  may  be  employed  two  or  three  ways.  One 
is  by  rotating  a  cutter  on  a  vertical  arbor,  driven  by  a 
worm-wheel  which  is  in  turn  operated  by  an  endless 
screw  on  a  shaft  bearing  a  grooved  pulley  driven  by  a 
round  belt  from  an  overhead  shaft ;  the  whole  rig  being 
held  on  the  slide-rest. 


54  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Another  device  for  doing  the  same  thing  is  also  an 
attachment  to  the  slide-rest,  and  consists  of  a  horizon- 
tal cotter  drill  passing  through  a  tool-post  and  bearing 
on  its  outer  end  a  small  worm-wheel  driven  by  an  end- 
less screw  on  a  shaft  having  the  same  kind  of  a 
grooved  pulley  for  a  round  driving-belt. 

Turning  Shafts.  There  are  three  reasons  why  it  is 
best  to  turn  as  little  as  possible  off  the  outside  of 
wrought- iron  or  steel  shafts.  One  is  that  it  costs  more 
to  take  a  deep  cut  than  to  take  a  slight  one ;  the 
second  is  that  the  more  you  take  off  the  greater  you 
waste ;  and  the  third,  of  which  very  few  take  special 
notice,  is  that  the  further  from  the  outside  you  go  the 
poorer  the  material ;  this  being  true  both  of  castings 
and  of  forgings  or  of  rolled  articles.  Turning  down 
shafting  is  only  to  make  up  for  imperfections  in  sur- 
face or  in  diameter.  If  shafts  could  be  rolled  perfectly 
true  in  surface  and  in  section,  there  would  not  only  be 
no  necessity  for  turning  them  down,  but  there  would 
be  an  actual  loss  in  doing  so  ;  it  would  be  paying 
money  and  taking  time,  to  lessen  the  value  of  the 
article. 

But  where  shafting  has  to  be  turned  down,  one 
thing  should  be  done,  to  start  with  a  sharp  tool  and 
with  a  good  enough  tool  to  be  able  to  take  the  full 
length  of  the  tool  without  any  perceptible  wear  of  the 
tool ;  for  every  one-hundredth  of  an  inch  that  the  tool 
wears  in  length  makes  the  shaft  one-fiftieth  of  an  inch 
greater  in  diameter,  and  there  is  no  earthly  use  in 
having  even  a  six-inch  shaft  one-fiftieth  of  an  inch 
larger  at  one  end  than  at  the  other.  Another  advan- 
tage in  having  the  tool  sharp  is  that  the  sharper  it  is, 
other  things  being  equal,  the  more  likely  it  is  to  keep 
on  cutting  instead  of  starting  to  dig  in.  A  sharp  tool 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  55 

will  trim  off  the  edge  of  a  seain  or  skim  off  the  edges 
of  a  soft  place,  where  a  dull  one  will  refuse  to  do  it 
and  will  go  fighting  for  a  place  to  dig  in  and  sulk. 
That  is  one  of  the  several  reasons  why  emery  and 
corundum  wheels  do  better  work  in  making  calender- 
rolls  and  milling-rolls  than  the  best  turning-tools  in 
the  best  of  lathes  can  do,  with  the  best  of  workmen  ; 
and  this  is  one  reason  why  in  ordering  a  steam-engine 
you  should  be  particular  to  specify  that  the  crank- pins 
should  be  ground  after  turning. 

Counterbalancing  Cranks  While  Turning  Them. 
Much  better  work  is  done  in  turning  up  cranks  if  they 
are  counterbalanced  while  in  the  lathe ;  but  if  this  is 
done  when  the  cranks  are  in  place  for  working,  the 
balance  will  not  be  true  by  reason  of  the  friction  of  the 
lathe  having  to  be  overcome.  To  do  this  properly, 
screw  steel  plugs  into  the  center-pieces  and  balance 
the  crank  while  hung  on  cone-centers  ;  then  you  may 
chuck  in  the  lathe  in  the  usual  manner.  This  method 
will  answer  for  two-throw  or  three-throw  cranks  as 
well  as  for  any  other ;  the  balancing-pieces  being 
bolted  to  the  centering-pieces  in  such  positions  and 
amounts  as  will  cause  the  piece  to  remain  any  side  up 
independently. 

Boring  Tapers.  In  order  to  set  the  swivel  on  a  lathe 
for  boring  any  degree  of  taper,  measure  the  diameter 
of  the  circular  rest-seat,  and  scribe  on  a  flat  surface  a 
circle  of  that  diameter,  mark  its  center  and  draw  a 
radial  line  AB,  Figure  53  ;  mark  off  a  distance  AB 
equal  to  the  diameter  of  the  small  end  of  the  hole  to  be 
bored  ;  draw  the  line  AG  at  right  angles  to  AB,  and 
GD  parallel  to  AB,  of  a  length  equal  to  the  diameter 
of  the  large  end  of  the  hole.  Connecting  DB,  the 
distance  EF  on  the  circumference  of  the  circle  between 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


FIG.  53  — CALCULATING  ADJUSTMENT  OF  SLIDE- REST. 

where  AG  and  BD  cut  it  will  be  the  amount  that 
the  rest  must  be  swiveled  to  cut  the  desired  taper. 
Figure  54  shows  a  good  form  of  rest  for  such  work. 


FIG.  54.— SWIVEL  REST  FOR  BORING  TAPERS. 

Nicking  Stock  for  Breaking  Off.      I  saw  a  man,  who 

was  old  enough  to  know  better,  *  *  nicking ' '  a  piece  of 
stock  with  a  half-round  tool.  This  requires  a  much 
deeper  nick  to  effect  breakage  at  the  desired  point  than 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT,  57 

where  a  V  tool  is  used.  Where  a  square-nosed  tool 
is  used,  there  is  also  required  a  deeper  nick  than 
with  the  V  tool,  and  the  break  will  be  apt  to  occur 
at  one  of  the  abrupt  angles  instead  of  in  the  middle 
of  the  groove. 

fletrio  Pitch  Screws.  You  want  to  cut  screws  with 
a  metric  pitch,  for  that  Persian  job,  and  don't  know 
just  how  to  make  your  lathe  "walk  Spanish"?  Few 
things  easier.  Make  a  *  *  translating  gear  ' '  having  on 
one  stud  two  wheels,  one  with  fifty  teeth  and  the 
other  with  157.  Their  ratio  is  i  to  0.3937,  which  is 
about  as  close  as  you  will  be  liable  to  get  anything  ; 
for  the  lathes  that  work  to  fine  decimal  points  are  few, 
and  the  men  who  will  do  it  on  them  just  as  few. 

Turning  a  Cube  in  a  Lathe.  While  the  lathe,  con- 
sidered as  a  tool  for  turning  objects  perfectly  round,  is 
not  a  success,  yet  it  may  be  made  to  do  a  great  many 
other  things  well.  For  instance,  one  can  turn  a  cube 
in  it.  To  do  this  from  a  cylinder,  get  one  that  is  as 
long  as  it  is  thick,  or  to  put  it  more  technically,  the 
diameter  of  which  is  equal  to  its  hight.  Describe  a 
square  on  one  of  its  circular  faces  or  ends.  Find  two 
points  on  its  convex  side,  at  just  half  its  length  from 
each  end,  and  exactly  opposite  each  other.  Chuck 
the  cylinder  about  the  diameter  joining  these  two  lines, 
and  face  off  a  slab  down  to  one  of  the  four  lines  repre- 
senting the  side  of  the  cube  that  is  to  be.  Chu^k  it 
again  at  the  quarter-points,  removing  a  slab,  then 
reverse  and  take  off  a  fourth  slab,  and  the  cube  is  left. 

To  cut  a  cube  of  a  given  size  from  a  cylinder,  there 
must  be  used  one  having  a  diameter  equal  to  the  diag- 
onal of  one  of  the  flat  sides  of  the  cube.  To  turn  a 
cube  from  a  sphere,  the  latter  must  have  a  diameter 
equal  to  the  longest  diagonal  of  the  cube.  Thus,  to 


58  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

get   a   one-inch   cube  we  must  have  a  cylinder  1.414 
inches  in  diameter,    or  a  sphere    1.678   inches. 

Various  Uses  of  the  Lathe.  One  use  to  which  it 
may  be  put  in  a  manufacturing  business  (as  distin- 
guished from  a  jobbing  business  where  no  two  succes- 
sive pieces  of  work  are  alike)  is  to  aqt  as  a  rotary 
shears  for  cutting  off  wire  and  small  rods.  In  order 
to  do  this,  bolt  on  the  face-plate  a  hardened  steel  plate 
or  block  having  one  edge  so  placed  as  to  cut  the  radius 
of  the  face-plate  at  an  angle ;  then  provide  for  the  tool- 
post  a  block  bored  or  drilled  exactly  to  fit  the  wire  or 
rod,  and  so  placed  that  the  cutting-plate  or  block  bolted 
on  the  face-plate  shall  just  clear  it  in  rotating ;  also 
that  when  so  placed  the  bore-hole  shall  be  at  right 
angles  with  the  face  of  the  face-plate.  Then  every 
time  the  face-plate  makes  a  rotation,  it  will  cut  off  from 
the  wire  (if  the  latter  is  kept  pushed  up  against  it)  a 
piece  as  long  as  the  distance  of  projection  of  the  cut- 
ting-plate which  is  bolted  to  it.  If  shorter  lengths  are 
desired,  they  may  be  arranged  for  without  making  a 
thinner  block  or  plate,  by  fastening  a  thickness-piece 
on  the  face-plate  in  advance  of  the  cutting  edge  of  the 
plate  or  block,  letting  it  extend  far  enough  in  advance 
to  make  it  easy  to  let  the  end  of  the  wire  or  rod  bear  on 
it  without  getting  snagged  by  its  advancing  edge. 

Boring  Holes  in  the  Lathe  should  never  be  done 
before  the  work  has  been  faced  off.  There  are  two 
reasons  for  this ;  the  bore  would  not  be  true  if  the  fac- 
ing was  left  to  the  last,  and  the  scale  would  dull  the 
boring- tool. 

Starting  Reamer.  To  get  a  hole  the  right  size  for  a 
hand  reamer  to  follow,  such  a  machine  reamer  as  is 
shown  in  Figure  55  will  do  well.  It  may  follow  an 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT. 


59 


ordinary  twist  drill ;  if  the  drill  is  forced  through 
straight  there  will  be  but  little  work  for  the  machine 
reamer  to  do,  and  still  less  for  the  hand  reamer.  It 
can  be  about  four-one-thousandths  smaller  than  the 
hand  reamer,  with  a  slight  taper  ;  and  say  about  two- 
thousandths  smaller  at  the  back  than  at  the  cutting 


FIG.  55. — STARTING  REAMER. 

edges.  For  iron  and  steel  its  teeth  need  not  be  backed 
off  lengthwise  as  in  a  hand  reamer,  as  it  cuts  only  on 
the  beveled  end.  For  brass  it  must  be  backed  off  the 
whole  length  to  keep  it  from  binding. 

Stepped  Reamer  for  Tapers.  Tapered  holes  may  be 
reamed  true  more  readily  by  roughing  them  out  first 
with  a  stepped  reamer,  such  as  is  shown  in  Figure  56, 
the  ends  of  the  steps,  A,  B,  C\  being  in  a  straight  line 


FIG.  56. — STEPPED  REAMER  FOR  TAPERS. 

DD  which  has  the  requisite  degree  of  taper  ;  although 
the  diameters  must  be  a  trifle  less  than  the  required 
finished  diameter,  so  that  the  finishing  reamer  with 
an  ordinary  straight  taper  may  give  the  right  size 


60  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

exactly.  Bach  step  should  have  about  one-one-hun- 
dredth inch  clearance,  not  quite  meeting  the  flute  of  its 
cutting-side.  In  this  tool  each  step  has  a  guide  for  its 
cutting-edge.  The  flute  may  be  straight  or  spiral, 
and  if  the  taper  is  very  slight  a  left-hand  spiral  will  be 
necessary  to  keep  the  tool  from  running  forward  and 
taking  too  deep  a  cut ;  but  if  there  is  much  taper  it  is 
better  to  have  a  right-hand  spiral. 

Fine  Taper  Reaming.  Almost  any  one  can  do  good 
parallel  reaming,  but  it  takes  a  mechanic  to  ream 
taper,  especially  when  the  diameter  and  degree  of  taper 
must  be  absolute.  Those  who  have  tried  it  and  found 
on  their  first  attempts  that  there  'were  left  lines  run- 
ning along  the  bore,  just  where  each  tooth  or  lip 
stopped,  will  admit  that  to  ream  taper  is  a  fine  art. 
The  Hancock  Inspirator  Co.  manufactures  a  boiler- 
feeder  which  must  be  made  just  right  or  it  will  not 
give  proper  service,  and  this  must  be  done  on  a  com- 
mercial basis  so  that  the  device  may  be  sold  in  compe- 
tition with  others,  and  at  a  profit.  The  reamer  which 
is  used  in  its  shops  for  fine  taper  work  has  a  section 
almost  like  a  circular  saw  with  very  large  raking  teeth, 
comparatively  few  in  number.  In  fact  the  lips  are  so 
fluted  as  to  have  no  backs  at  all ;  and  then  the  backs 
put  on  by  grinding  for  about  one-sixty-fourth  inch 
after  the  hardening  has  been  done,  and  last  giving  the 
clearance  by  an  oil-stone.  The  greatest  possible  odd 
number  of  teeth  is  used,  and  the  flutes  are  parallel  with 
the  axis.  Their  work  is  very  light,  just  to  give  a  slight 
scrape. 

Adjustable  vs.  Standard  Reamers.  In  many  shops 
there  are  adjustable  reamers  capable  of  very  fine  range 
of  variations  at  will ;  but  the  Pratt  &  Whitney  Co. 
finds  that  a  reamer  of  fixed  diameter  properly  relieved 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


61 


and  made  of  good  tool  steel,  carefully  hardened  and 
tempered,  will  in  the  ordinary  operations  of  machine- 
shop  practice  maintain  its  standard  qualities  long  after 
the  more  adjustable  reamer  is  laid  aside.  In  this  Com- 
pany's shops  an  ordinary  non-adjustable  chuck  reamer 
reamed  to  gage  over  14,000  holes  two  inches  deep  in 
cast  iron  without  perceptible  chan'ge  of  size,  using 
simply  an  upright  drill  for  the  work. 

An  Adjustable  Reamer  for  small  work  is  shown  in 
Figure  57 ;  it  comes  from  the  ' ( land  of  steady  habits. ' ' 
The  cutters  A  and  B  are  adjustable  along  their  slots 


FIG.  57. — ADJUSTABLE  REAMER  FOR  SMALL  WORK. 

by  the  screw  C  and  the  nut  D.     For  larger  work  (say 
up  to  three  or  four  inches)  the  form  shown  in  Figure 


FIG.  58. — ADJUSTABLE  REAMER  FOR  LARGE  WORK. 

58  is  good.     The  cutters  AB,  CD  have  two  cutting, 
edges  each,  and  are  held  by  screws  set  at  an  angle  to 


62  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

the  arbor-axis  and  are  irregularly  spaced.      As  they 
wear  they  are  set  out  by  paper. 

Reaming  Brass.  After  reaming  brass  be  careful  to 
have  the  reamers  not  only  sharper  than  for  working  in 
iron  or  steel,  but  with  more  clearness.  In  some  shops, 
however,  there  is  but  one  set  of  reamers  for  all  kinds 
of  work  in  every  kind  of  metal.  In  such  cases  solid 
reamers  will  not  answer  ;  they  must  be  adjustable,  and 
there  must  come  with  them  a  set  of  plug  and  ring 
gages  by  which  they  may  be  adjusted  and  with  which 
the  work  itself  may  be  tried.  These  gages  come  in 
handy  also  for  caliper-setting  when  turning  on  the 
lathe. 


FIG.  59. — REAMER  FOR  BRASS. 

Figure  59  shows  an  adjustable  reamer  having  three 
equally  spaced  slots  milled  or  planed  in  its  body,  and 
having  in  these  rectangular  pieces  of  steel,  held  by 
small  machine-screws  ;  then  the  whole  turned  down, 
leaving  metal  for  grinding  and  hardening.  Next  the 
blade  bottoms  are  ground  straight,  and  the  blades 
screwed  to  their  place  and  ground  to  within  two-thou- 
sandths of  the  finished  size,  next  oil-stoned  to  size.  To 
get  good  results  in  oil-stoning,  use  the  slips  as  you 
would  a  file ;  leave  the  cutting  edges  of  the  teeth  the 
highest.  This  reamer  may  be  brought  up  to  size 
after  wear,  by  packing  strips  of  tissue  paper.  Under 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  63 

three-fourths-inch  this  style  could  not  be  used,  as  it 
would  be  too  light  and  would  spring,  by  reason  of  the 
slots  weakening  the  stock. 

Reamed  Holes  "Just  a  Trifle  too  Small."  Ifmechan- 
ics  worked  as  "fine"  as  they  should,  the  trouble 
of  finding  a  reamed  hole  ' '  just  a  trifle  too  small ' '  need 
not  occur.  As  it  is,  it  does  happen,  several  times  too 
often,  and  the  main  thing  is  not  to  inveigh  against  its 
happening,  but  to  remedy  it.  Some  years  ago  Mr. 
Almond  patented  a  reamer  for  taking  say  half-a-thou- 
sandth  of  an  inch  from  the  inside  of  a  hole,  for  instance, 
three  or  four  inches  in  diameter  in  cast  iron.  There 
are  teeth  cut  just  as  in  an  ordinary  reamer,  but  then 
there  is  a  slot  in  which  slides  a  cutting-blade  which 
may  be  made,  by  both  it  and  the  slot  being  tapered,  to 
project  any  desired  amount  beyond  the  rest.  By  this 
means  a  very  slight  amount  of  cut  may  be  made  ;  the 
other  teeth  acting  practically  only  as  guides. 

Holding  Reamers  while  Harking  them  may  be  done 
by  the  rig  shown  in  Figure  60.  There  is  an  inner 


FIG  60. — HOLDING  REAMERSWHILE  MARKING  THEM. (HARRINGTONS.) 

sleeve  which  is  free  to  turn,  but  cannot  move  end- 
wise by  reason  of  the  plug  fitting  in  either  of  the 
grooves  shown  in  the  sectional  view.  This  inner 
sleeve  holds  the  reamer  or  tap  or  whatever  it  is,  the 


64  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

first  letter-punch  is  introduced  in  the  opening,  adjusted 
and  struck  with  the  hammer  ;  then  the  sleeve  is  turned 
the  proper  distance  for  the  next  letter,  the  second 
punch  is  introduced,  and  so  on  ;  the  fact  being  that 
all  the  letters  are  in  line  around  the  shank.  Where 
there  are  two  lines  of  lettering,  the  plug  may  be  pulled 
out,  the  sleeve  moved  endwise  the  requisite  distance, 
and  the  second  circumferential  line  of  marking  done. 
Edwin  Harrington  &  Son  use  this. 

Turret=Tool  Lubricator.  Instead  of  ordinary  soap 
and  water  which  you  are  now  using,  try  whale-oil 
soap,  which  you  will  find  better  ;  but  still  better  yet, 
use  good  lard  oil  and  plenty  of  it,  and  after  use  extract 
the  chips  therefrom  (or  extract  it  from  the  chips, 
whichever  way  you  please  to  call  it)  by  a  filter,  so  as 
to  use  it  again.  Those  who  have  enough  of  it  to  war- 
rant may  use  a  centrifugal  extractor  ;  but  for  ordinary 
purposes  and  small  quantities  a  good  filter  does  as 
well. 

Disposing  of  Turnings.  Just  what  to  do  with  the 
turnings  and  how  to  handle  them  most  readily  is  a 
question  which  often  agitates  large  establishments. 
They  have  a  certain  market  value,  where  they  are  not 
disposed  of  in  the  shops  that  make  them  ;  but  if  they 
are  mixed,  that  is,  brass  and  iron,  or  even  steel  and 
iron  together,  they  are  neither  usable  nor  salable.  In 
the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works,  where  there  are  run- 
ways all  over  the  concern,  all  the  kinds  of  turnings, 
cast  iron,  wrought  iron,  steel,  and  brass,  are  kept  sep- 
arate to  start  with  ;  this  being  more  readily  done  here, 
where  piece-work  is  the  rule  (clear  down  to  labor), 
than  where  the  other  system  prevails.  The  accumula- 
tions of  each  day  are  brought  over  in  cars,  each  kind 
separately,  to  the  second  story  of  the  boiler-house, 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  65 

where  there  are  shoots  to  convey  them  from  hoppers, 
marked  plainly  with  the  name  of  each  kind  of  turning, 
to  cars  or  wagons  on  the  street  level.  This  system 
saves  time  in  handling  the  material,  and  enables  their 
delivery  from  all  over  the  shops  (covering  several  city 
blocks)  to  a  certain  point,  all  of  a  kind  together. 

Quick=Return  Planers.  Life  is  short — and  while 
it  is  just  about  as  long  now  as  it  was  in  the  days  of 
our  forefathers — perhaps  a  trifle  longer  owing  to  the 
better  care  that  we  can  take  of  both  weak  and  strong — 
we  realize  its  brevity  more  vividly  than  our  ancestors 
did,  and  we  want  to  do  more  work  in  a  given  time  in 
manufacturing  and  to  do  the  same  work  in  less  time 
in  repairing.  This  is  shown  better,  perhaps,  on  the 
average  metal-planer  than  on  any  other  machine-tool. 
Once  a  return  speed  of  two  to  one  was  considered 
ample  ratio  ;  then  three  to  one  was  thought  rushing 
things  ;  but  now  few  respectable  builders  will  give  less 
than  five  to  one,  and  many  shops  demand  seven  to 
one  where  the  work  is  not  so  heavy  as  to  make  the 
return  from  light  cuts  at  high  speed  a  cause  of  too 
much  jar. 

Open=Side  Planers.  There  is  a  large  increase  in  the 
use  of  open-side  planers  and  milling-machines,  and 
there  will  be  a  still  larger  demand  for  them  when  the 
makers  study  rather  further  the  laws  of  strains  on 
framing,  so  as  to  stiffen  their  machines,  without  in- 
creasing their  weight.  Many  machines  would  be  more 
convenient  if  there  were  two  tables,  so  that  with  certain 
classes  of  work  one  piece  could  be  adjusting  on  one 
table  while  another  was  being  worked  on  the  other 
table. 

Overfeed  of  Planers  may  be  rendered  harmless  by 
cutting  off  the  threads  at  each  end  of  the  feed-screw, 


66  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

so  that  if  the  saddle  feeds  to  the  end  of  the  screw  the 
rest  may  not  be  carried  against  the  end  of  the  cross- 
slide. 

Taking  up  Apron-Pivot  Wear.  When  the  apron  of 
a  planer  or  a  shaper  gets  loose  on  its  pivot,  so  that  it 
jumps  on  entering  and  on  leaving  the  cut,  it  is  time 
to  remedy  it.  This  may  be  done  by  giving  the  apron 
a  bevel  projection  on  the  back  lower  edge,  fitting  un- 
der a  corresponding  chamfer  on  the  head,  so  that  it 
cannot  lift  when  the  tool  strikes  the  work,  nor  can  it 
wobble  sidewise. 

Pit  Planer  Lead=Screw.  In  the  Mennig  shops  in 
Brussels,  Belgium,  there  is  a  big  pit  planer  which  has 
one  very  nice  feature  about  its  lead-screw.  There  is 
at  one  end  a  pair  of  collars  which  take  the  thrust  in 
both  directions  and  transmit  it  through  a  series  of 
hardened  steel  balls  to  the  bearing  proper,  thereby 
relieving  the  machine  of  very  much  of  the  strain  to 
which  it  would  otherwise  be  submitted. 

For  Holding  Work  on  a  Planer-Bed  many  ways  are 
employed  ;  some  classes  of  work  will  be  more  readily 
held  by  one  fastening  and  some  by  others.  Where  there 
are  many  pieces  of  the  same  kind  made  at  once,  there 
should  usually  be  some  certain  and  special  provision 
made  for  holding  and  releasing  promptly.  One  way 
for  holding  narrow  and  thin  pieces  is  to  let  the  end 
rest  against  the  ordinary  ( '  snub  ' '  stuck  through  one 
of  the  holes  in  the  planer-bed  ;  then  at  a  few  inches 
from  each  side  to  run  in  rows  of  snubs  which  have 
drilled  and  tapped  in  them  about  thirty  degrees  from 
the  planer-bed  and  at  right  angles  to  its  width,  steel 
bolts  having  cone-center  holes  made  in  their  lower 
ends.  Between  these  bolts  and  the  work  to  be  held 
there  are  placed  short  pieces  of  steel  rod  with  each  end 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  67 

turned  to  about  a  sixty-degree  cone.  One  end  of  each 
of  these  steel  pieces  digs  into  the  side  of  the  work, 
just  above  the  planer-bed,  the  other  end  fits  into  the 
centers  in  the  ends  of  the  bolts  ;  the  bolts  and  the 
steel  pieces  of  course  coming  axially  in  line  in  order 
to  get  a  good  grip  on  the  work,  and  to  prevent  the 
steel  pieces  being  knocked  out.  The  end  snub  takes 
the  lengthwise  horizontal  thrust  of  the  tool,  and  the 
side  pieces  resist  both  the  lateral  and  the  lifting  ten- 
dency, so  that  greedy  cuts  can  be  made. 

Supplementary  Planer=Tables.  In  order  to  permit 
a  planer  to  take  in  work  of  greater  width  than  the 
regular  table,  you  may  add  supplementary  tables  fitted 
with  T-slots  and  bolt-holes  ;  these  lying  across  the 
table  or  bed  proper,  to  which  they  are  held  by  set- 
screws,  passing  through  lugs  extending  down  from  the 
supplementary  tables  ;  the  distance  between  the  inside 
surfaces  of  these  lugs  being  just  the  width  of  the 
planer  bed.  Hewes  &  Phillips  have  these.  They 
may  be  used  in  other  ways,  as  for  supporting  frames, 
the  ends  and  the  sides  of  which  are  to  be  planed,  and 
which  may  be  held  to  one  of  these  supplementary 
tables  bolted  to  an  angle-plate.  They  may  also  be 
used,  end  on,  as  butting-pieces  for  the  ends  of  long 
frames  which  are  to  be  planed  on  their  edges. 

A   Swiveling  Supplementary     Planer-Table   is   for 

many  kinds  of  work,  as  for  link- planing,  an  advant- 
age ;  it  may  very  readily  be  applied  to  a  plain  table 
clamped  across  the  regular  planer- table. 

Planer-Chucks.  See  to  it  that  the  bottoms  of  your 
planer-chucks  are  perfectly  true,  and  that  you  have  a 
number  of  perfectly  parallel  strips  as  long  as  the 
chuck-jaws  ;  then  you  can  put  all  kinds  of  work  in  the 


68 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


chuck  in  a  very  short  time,  and  at  exactly  the  right 
depth. 

Shaper  Chucks  are,  as  ordinarily  made,  very  incon- 
venient for  working  the  ends  of  round  work.  If, 
however,  they  are  made  with  the  jaws  projecting 
beyond  the  sides,  the  piece  may  be  very  readily  handled. 

Bunter=Chucks  for  Planers.  Many  good  planer- 
hands  seldom  use  a  vise  if  they  can  get  out  of  it ;  set- 
ting the  work  directly  on  the  planer-table  and  holding 


FIG  61.— BUNTER  CHUCK. 


it  by  "bunters,"  straps,  etc.  One  of  the  best  forms 
of  bunter-chucks  is  shown  in  Figure  61,  being  made 
in  1 2 -inch  to  1 8-inch  sections  so  that  according  to  the 


FIG.  62. — BUNTER  CHUCK. 


length  of  work  being  handled,  one  or  more  parts  may 
be  used  in  line.  One  side  is  made  higher  than  the 
other,  so  that  it  may  be  used  for  work  of  different 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  69 

hights.  The  heads  of  the  holding-screws  are  let  into 
countersunk  holes  and  slotted  so  that  they  may  be 
turned  by  a  strong  screw-driver ;  they  enter  nuts  in 
the  T-slot  of  the  table. 

Where  it  is  necessary  to  do  a  variety  of  small  work 
on  a  medium-sized  machine  the  form  shown  in  Figure 


FIG.  63. — SHOWING  USE  OF  BUNTER  :>CREW. 

62  is  useful ;  two  faces  being  at  right  angles  to  each 
other  and  vertical  to  the  planer-table,  thus  saving 
much  time  in  shifting  fixtures,  etc. 

Where  by  reason  of  the  arrangement  of  holes  in  the 
planer-table  the  usual  studs  cannot  be  put  where  they 
would  be  desirable,  especially  on  small  work,  the 
hunter  screw  may  be  used  in  a  block  as  shown  in 
Figure  63,  which  may  be  put  in  place  and  taken  from 
the  slot  within  frames  or  beds,  without  disturbing 
them  or  adjoining  fixtures. 

These  wrinkles  come  from  Springfield,  Mass. 

Setting  flachine-Beds  on  Planers.  To  do  this  for 
the  first  planing  so  that  there  shall  be  no  twist  nor 
sag,  and  so  that  after  planing  the  bed  may  be  turned 
over  on  its  newly-planed  side  and  bear  perfectly  on  the 
planer- table,  is  not  always  accomplished ;  and  where 
it  is  done  it  is  not  always  done  so  easily  as  by  the 
following  method : 

Assume  six  points  on  its  under  surface;  two,  as  A,B, 


70  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

in  the  center  of  the  ends,  and  four,  as   (7,   D,   E,   Fr 
at  points  on  its  sides  near  the  ends. 

Provide  six  metal  setting- wedges  of  equal  dimen- 
sions. Raise  the  bed  on  two  of  them,  placed  at  the 
end  points  A,  B  ;  scribe  a  line  on  the  upper  surface  of 
each,  to  mark  where  the  end  face  of  the  bed  comes, 
when  the  bed  is  level.  Then  insert  wedges  0,  I),  A1, 
F}  without  driving;  scribe  lines  thereon  coincident 


C  D 

FIG.  64. — SETTING  MACHINE-BEDS  ON  PLANERS. 

with  the  side  of  the  bed  ;  next  drive  C  and  F,  taking" 
the  weight  from  A  ;  scribe  lines  on  -4,  and  scribe  on. 
each  of  these  two  a  second  line ;  do  the  same  with  D 
and  E  as  with  C  and  F ;  then  take  out  (7,  D,  #,  and 
jF,  and  scribe  midway  between  the  two  lines  on  each,  a 
third  line ;  drive  all  four  of  these  side  wedges  up  to 
the  middle  line  on  each. 

Planing  Connecting=Rods.  You  don't  seem  to  have 
quite  struck  the  way  to  get  these  connecting-rods  true 
in  the  way  of  alignment  of  side-faces  and  edges.  Get 
a  straight-edge  longer  than  the  entire  rod  ;  apply  it  to 
one  of  the  cheeks  of  the  big  end  and  note  the  distance 
between  it  and  the  cheek  of  the  small  end.  Do  the 
same  thing  with  the  other  side  ;  then  you  will  see 
whether  or  not  the  alignment  is  right.  If  the  distances 
are  unequal,  one  of  the  stub-ends  is  to  one  side  of  the 
center  of  the  rod.  Then  apply  the  straight-edge  to 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  71 

the  wide  face  of  the  small  end  and  let  it  lie  on  the 
narrow  edge  of  the  large  end,  scribing  a  line  to  show 
the  amount  by  which  the  large  end  projects  each  side 
beyond  the  small  one.  Do  the  same  thing  with  the 
other  side.  The  two  distances  of  offset  should  be 
equal .  Then  take  two  ' '  winding  strips  ' '  and  lay  them 
parallel,  one  on  each  wide  face  on  one  side  of  the  rod  ; 
sight  them,  and  if  they  do  not  come  in  the  same  plane 
the  faces  are  out  of  plane  with  each  other. 

Hollow  Planing.  Once  in  awhile  there  is  a  demand 
for  a  piece  of  hollow  planing,  as  in  locomotive  con- 
uecting-rods  ;  not  radial  planing,  in  which  the  curve 
is  across  the  line  of  action  of  the  tool,  but  hollow- 
planing  in  which  the  cut  is  required  to  be  deeper  at 
the  middle  of  its  length  than  towards  the  ends,  the 
depth  of  cut  lessening  gradually  and  regularly  from 
the  center  both  ways.  It  is  a  more  simple  thing  to 
do— when  you  know  how  ;  and  all  the  * c  know  how  ' ' 
consists  in  blocking  the  piece  up  in  the  center  so  as 
to  spring  it  vertically  as  much  as  the  offset  or  rise  of 
the  required  curvature,  and  then  planing  straight. 
On  freeing  the  piece  it  will  resume  its  straight  outline 
and  have  the  proper  face-curve. 

This  lengthwise  curved  planing  may  if  desired  be 
combined  with  radial  planing,  so  as  to  give  the  face 
curvature  in  both  directions.  This  method  of  work- 
ing is  of  course  only  adapted  to  pieces  which  are  long 
enough  in  comparison  with  their  thickness,  to  be 
sprung  on  the  planer-bed. 

Planing  Dead  Straight.  You  cannot  plane  anything 
dead  straight,  nor  can  you  turn  anything  perfectly 
round.  You  must  resort  to  grinding  or  scraping,  or 
both.  You  might  as  well  give  it  up  before  you  com- 
mence, if  you  have  any  ideas  of  turning  round  or 


72  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

planing  flat.  It  is  not  in  the  nature  of  even  the 
best  of  machine- tools  to  do  it. 

Planing  Large  Cast=Iron  Plates.  As  long  as  you  go 
on  in  the  way  that  you  are,  in  planing  up  those  big 
iron  plates,  you  will  not  get  one  of  them  straight. 
You  cast  them  about  six  feet  by  four,  and  an  inch  and 
a  half  thick,  and  then  you  plane  off  a  thirty-second, 
and  scrape  them,  and  wonder  that  they  are  not  flat. 
They  mean  to  be  flat,  but  they  can't.  You  have 
taken  off  the  skin  from  one  side  and  that  makes  them 
curl ;  and  all  the  scraping  and  riling  that  you  can  put 
on  them  in  two  days  will  not  make  them  be  straight 
and  stay  straight.  If  you  will  take  a  thirty-second  off 
what  is  to  be  the  finished  side  and  then  one-sixteenth 
off  the  back  and  then  turn  and  take  another  one-thirty- 
second  off  the  face,  you  will  find  them  in  about  the 
same  condition  of  tension  on  both  sides,  and  they  will 
stay  reasonably  flat  and  straight ;  then  all  that  you 
have  to  do  with  your  scraper  is  to  correct  any  high 
spots  that  may  exist  by  reason  of  the  metal  having 
been  hard  in  spots  and  resisting  the  planer- tools.  R. 
Hoe  &  Co.  do  this.  You  will  save  by  doing  intelli- 
gently by  cheap  labor  on  the  planer,  what  you  are 
now  paying  a  high-priced  man  to  do  with  infinite 
pains  and  skill  against  the  heaviest  odds.  That  man 
is  a  good  bench-hand,  and  is  doing  his  share  of  it  with 
a  skill  which  you  will  find  to  be  very  rare  in  these 
days  ;  but  it  is  not  his  place  (as  he  sees  things)  to  tell 
you  how  you  may  dispense  with  about  seven-eighths 
of  his  work  and  get  the  plates  done  in  half  the  time 
that  it  now  takes. 

By  such  gradual  approach  to  finishing  dimensions  as 
I  have  mentioned,  coupled  with  proper  bolting  down 
to  the  planer-bed,  the  largest  plates  may  be  made  as 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  73 

perfectly  plane  as  is  demanded.  They  should  be 
tried,  after  planing,  with  a  slightly  bellying  file,  held 
in  a  special  holder  ;  and  then  given  final  finish  as  to 
surface,  by  the  scraper.  In  such  work  good  surface- 
plates  should  be  used  ;  and  these  should  be  tested  with 
each  other  and  with  a  standard,  which  latter  should 
never  be  used  except  for  purposes  of  comparison. 

In  Packing  up  Work  on  a  Planer,  instead  of  using 
blocks  of  this,  that  and  the  other  size,  and  with  thick 


FIG.  65. — PACKING  UP  WORK  ON  A  PLANER. 

and  thin  pieces  of  this,  that  and  the  other  stuff,  why 
not  make  yourself  some  short  jack-screws  consisting 


74 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


of  a  disk  or  flat-footed  piece  having  in  the  center  an 
upright  bored  out  and  threaded  on  the  inside,  and  in 
which  is  a  stout  screw  with  a  big  head  ?  Such  a  rig 
as  that  will  enable  you  to  set  pieces  at  any  desired 
height,  and  always  to  get  the  same  height ;  also  to  get 
both  ends  or  sides  of  the  same  piece  at  the  same 
height.  If  you  have  a  lug  cast  on  one  side  of  the 
post,  and  split  the  lug  and  the  post  you  can  use  a 
pinching-screw  to  prevent  any  possible  loss  of  adjust- 
ment. 

Adjustable  Parallels.  Wedges  and  "  shims  "  (by 
the  way  this  latter  is  a  New  England  word  and  not 
much  known  south  of  New  York)  are  sometimes 


FIGS.  66  AND  67. — ADJUSTABLE  PARALLELS. 

very  inconvenient  in  setting  planer- work  ;  and  their 
use  may  be  very  well  superseded  by  adjustable  paral- 
lels, which  may  be  found  in  some  of  the  Springfield 
shops. 


MA  CHINE  SHOP  CHA  7*.  75 

One  form  of  these  adjust  able  parallels  by  which  very 
accurate  setting  may  be  effected  is  shown  in  Figures 
66  and  67.  The  two  slips  A  and  B  are  tongued  and 
grooved  together,  but  along  the  tongue  and  the 
groove  is  a  semicircular  groove  which  is  threaded 
part  way  along  to  receive  a  long  adjusting-screw  C 
by  which  B,  which  is  the  shorter  of  the  two,  may  be 
given  any  desired  amount  of  travel  along  A.  The 
pitch  of  C  and  the  angle  of  the  pieces  A  and  B  being 
known,  it  is  very  easy  to  figure  out  how  much 
advance  one  turn  of  C  will  give  to  B ;  and  A  may  be 
graduated  on  the  edge  with  reference  to  this,  so  that 
the  position  of  a  zero-mark  on  B  may  indicate  the 
total  height  of  both  pieces. 

Adjustable  parallels  are  by  no  means  new,  but  were 
invented  by  no  less  a  person  than  James  Watt,  who 
by  the  way,  invented  also  the  letter-copying  roller 
press  and  screw  press.  Only  in  the  original  form 
there  was  no  screw,  merely  a  series  of  notches  into 
which  a  pin  might  be  dropped. 

Planer  Gage-Blocks.  A  good  way  of  getting  the 
proper  height  of  a  planer- tool  is  to  have  a  lot  of  small 
cast-iron  blocks  planed  and  lapped  to  size  and  stamped 
on  each  face  with  the  height  of  that  face.  There  are 
many  cases  where  such  a  set  of  blocks  could  be  em- 
ployed, where  neither  scales,  calipers  nor  surface- 
gages  could  be  used  with  convenience.  Blocks  and 
plates  running  1-32,  1-16,  3-32,  J;  5-16,  and  f  inch 
will  give  all  sizes  up  to  i-J  inches  in  thirty-seconds  of 
an  inch  ;  blocks  of  5-100,  one,  two,  three  and  four- 
tenths  inches  will  measure  all  sizes  up  to  one  inch 
in  both  tenths  and  half-tenths.  Of  course,  in  the 
larger  sizes,  each  block  may  have  three  separate 
dimensions  stamped,  but  the  thin  plates  cannot  so 


76  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

well  be  used  in  combination  ;  that  is,  a  plate  four 
inches  by  three  and  only  1-16  inch  thick  could  not 
be  well  used  with  one  two  by  one  by  1-32,  to  show 
3  1-16  or  4  1-32  inches  ;  but  one,  i  by  f  by  J  inches 
could  be  well  used  with  one  n-i 6  by  9-16  by  7-16  to 
show  i  11-16,  i  9-16,  i  7-16,  i  5-16,  i  3-16,  i  1-16, 
and  15-16  inches  in  height. 

Cutting  Internal  Gears  on  a  Planer.  This  may  be 
done  by  casting  the  gear-blank  with  a  spider  attached, 
which  may  be  driven  on  an  ordinary  mandrel,  and 
bending  the  tool  so  as' to  cut  on  the  side  and  also  to 
stand  out  in  front.  Then  the  head -stock  being  bent 
down  so  as  not  to  raise  the  tool  when  it  is  drawn 
back,  the  teeth  may  be  nicely  cut ;  after  which  the 
rim  may  be  separated  from  the  spider. 

Cutting  Gear- Wheels  on  the  Slotter.  To  cut  a  gear- 
wheel of  an  unusual  size,  pitch,  or  tooth  shape,  some- 
times bothers  the  average  shop,  which  is  equipped 
only  with  the  standard  cutters  such  as  are  furnished 
by  two  or  three  firms  that  have  had  the  good  sense  to 
make  their  system  of  tooth-curves  uniform,  so  that 
every  spur-wheel  of  the  same  pitch  will  mesh  with 
every  other  made  by  the  same  set  of  cutters.  Then 
again  some  shops  have  no  large  milling-machines  ; 
some  have  none  at  all ;  so  even  if  they  had  the  cutters 
they  might  not  be  able  to  use  them.  Again,  it  does 
not  always  pay  to  get  a  set  of  cutters  for  a  job  which 
may  never  have  to  be  duplicated. 

For  such  work  it  is  very  often  perfectly  feasible  to 
use  a  slotting-machine  with  a  cutter  of  the  shape  of 
the  tooth-space.  The  wheel  or  rack  blank  is  first 
carefully  graduated  into  the  requisite  number  of  divi- 
sions (if  there  is  no  graduated  chuck  on  the  slotter) ; 
then  is  bolted  fast  to  the  slotter-bed  or  table  and  a 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  77 

scribe-mark  made  on  the  latter  to  correspond  with  one 
of  the  division-marks  on  the  edge  of  the  wheel-blank. 
Then  the  tool  is  set  to  work  until  a  tooth-space  is 
cut ;  the  wheel  is  then  turned  or  the  rack  slid  along 
until  the  second  division-mark  on  its  periphery  or 
edge  is  in  exact  line  with  the  scribe- mark  on  the 
slotter-bed,  a  second  space  cut,  and  so  on. 

It  is  well  not  to  do  all  the  work  with  one  tool,  but 
to  have  a  rough  cut  taken  for  each  space  with  a  tool 
which  will  make  the  approximate  outline,  and  then  to 
finish  off  with  one  filed  or  ground  exactly  to  the 
requisite  form. 

For  this  class  of  work,  as  for  many  others,  chilled 
cast-iron  tools  will  be  found  very  desirable,  as  they 
keep  their  shape  and  take  greedy  cuts,  and  may  be 
made  of  a  special  outline  such  as  that  required  for 
tooth-space  cutting,  more  quickly  and  cheaply  than 
by  forging. 

Over=accuracy.  At  the  Centennial  there  was  a  plat- 
form scale  exhibited  presided  over  by  an  attendant 
who  weighed  each  person  who  wished  it,  and  gave 
him  or  her  a  card  on  which  his  weight  in  pounds  and 
ounces  (and  I  am  not  sure  but  it  was  also  in  fractions 
of  an  ounce)  was  recorded  as  having  been  taken  on 
the  specified  day,  on  the  celebrated  Blank  &  Go's 
standard  scales. 

Now  it  happened  that  the  scale-beam  was  notched 
only  to  quarter  pounds.  Still,  it  made  the  folks 
happy,  and  the  matter  seems  to  me  now,  as  it  did 
then,  humorous,  as  an  instance  of  overaccuracy.  But 
it  is  not  the  only  one  across  which  I  have  come  for  a 
long  time.  For  instance,  in  a  gun-shop  (using 
ugun  "  in  the  sense  of  cannon)  the  boring  is  con- 
ducted very  much  like  a  religious  rite,  in  the  attempt 


78  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

to  get  absolute  accuracy  in  diameter  and  absolute 
straightness  of  bore.  There  are  about  as  many  steady- 
rests  as  trie  law  allows,  in  older  to  obviate  the  possi- 
bility of  any  lack  of  straightness  in  the  finished  bore. 
But  when  the  piece  is  mounted  on  its  trunnions,  its 
long  tube  projects  out  unsupported,  and  the  muzzle 
droops,  as  a  matter  of  course. 

The  only  way  to  get  a  gun-bore  straight  is  to  rotate 
the  piece  itself  instead  of  the  tool. 

In  Boring  Cylinders  it  is  better  to  use  three  cutters 
than  one  or  than  two.  With  one  cutter  there  is 
spring  to  the  bar.  With  two  the  bar  is  less  well 
supported  than  with  three.  One  cutter  will  cause 
the  hole  to  be  smaller  in  the  middle  than  at  the  ends 
of  the  cylinders ;  and  the  surface  of  the  metal  will  be 
rougher  in  the  middle  than  at  the  ends  of  the 
cylinder. 

Boring  Large  Holes  in  a  Cored  Casting,  where  ac- 
curacy is  required,  it  is  not  usually  an  easy  matter; 
yet  in  one  shop  at  least  (T.  R.  Almond's  in  Brook- 
lyn) there  is  an  original  method  of  doing  good  work 
and  plenty  of  it,  which  I  am  glad  to  show  you. 

The  work,  which  is  a  sleeve,  is  held  in  a  three- 
jawed  chuck,  gripped  "  short ;"  a  wooden  disc  being 
placed  between  it  and  the  chuck  to  keep  from  cramp- 
ing ;  then  a  guide  or  sleeve,  bored  to  fit  the  work  and 
also  the  reamer,  is  placed  over  both  the  latter  and 
the  reamer  set  to  cutting.  The  cutters  are  ground 
perfectly  square  on  the  points  ;  the  guide  is  about 
one  one-thousandth  inch  larger  than  the  reamer ;  the 
hole  bored  being  of  the  size  of  the  hole  in  the  sleeve 
instead  of  that  of  the  reamer  by  reason  of  the  tool 
having  a  tendency  to  4 '  wander  ' '  within  the  limits  of 
the  sleeve.  The  guide  fits  easily  over  the  work  and  is 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


79 


firmly  held  until  the  cutter  has  fairly  entered  (say 
i- 1 6  inch)  serving  both  to  center  the  cutter  and  to 
steady  the  work.  After  once  starting,  the  sleeve  is 
raised  (as  shown  in  the  second  illustration),  a  small 
pin  holding  it  above  the  upper  cutter ;  the  two  holes 


FIGS.  68  AND  69.— BORING  LARGE  HOLES  IN  A  CORED  CASTING. 
(ALMOND.) 

are  then  finished  at  one  cut  and  are  found  to  be 
exactly  in  line.  The  bottom  of  the  large  hole  is 
roughed  out  in  the  lathe  before  boring,  to  save  the 
cutter ;  the  extra  work  being  paid  for  in  extra  life  of 
the  tools 


So 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


Boring  and  Reaming  in  Two  fletals.  To  bore  a 
hole  in  a  piece,  one  side  of  which  is  of  a  different 
metal  from  the  other,  is  difficult,  especially  when  the 
circumferences  of  the  two  pieces  are  about  equal. 
The  softer  side  gets  the  larger  diameter  of  hole,  and 
reaming  becomes  necessary.  This  may  be  accom- 


FIG.  70. — DISH-FACED  ROSE  BIT  FOR  REAMING  TRUE 
HOLES  IN  Two  METALS. 

plished  by  a  dish-faced  rose  bit  such  as  is  shown  in 
Figure  70,  the  dish  having  an  angle  of  10°  or  15°  with 
the  end,  and  being  cut  into  seven  teeth.  Bore  the 
job  with  a  tool  in  the  lathe  tool-post  until  the  hole 
is  only  a  trifle  too  large  on  the  softer  side ;  then 
chamfer  the  edge  of  the  hole  on  the  harder  side  with 
a  file,  up  to  the  proper  size,  and  go  in  with  the  dished 
rose  bit  and  plenty  of  oil. 

For  Boring  Long,  Deep  Holes  that  do  not  go  clear 
through  the  pieces  so  as  to  permit  of  using  a  boring- 
bar,  use  a  tool  having  right  back  of  it  a  set-screw 
which  may  be  run  out  so  as  to  touch  the  opposite 
side  of  the  bore  from  the  one  the  tool  is  working  on ; 
and  have  half-way  between  these  two,  so  as  to  touch 
the  circumference  of  the  bore-hole  ninety  degrees  from 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


Si 


the  tool  and  also  ninety  degrees  from  the  first  screw, 
a  similar  screw  which  may  be  adjusted  so  that  the 
tool  will  be  held  central  and  the  hole  kept  straight. 
If  the  job  be  such  as  to  permit  the  hole  being  bored 
vertically,  there  will  be  no  trouble  about  getting  out 


FIGS.  71  AND  72. — FOR  BORING  LONG  DEEP  HOLES. 

the  borings  or  having  them  crowd  under  either  of 
the  set-screws  ;  but  if  it  must  be  a  horizontal  job, 
the  tool  must  be  rigged  so  that  one  of  the  screws 
shall  be  at  the  top,  and  the  other  at  one  side,  the  tool 
being  on  the  other  side. 

A  Guide=Box  for  a  Boring=Bar,  arranged  so  as  to  be 
adapted  to  bars  of  various  sizes,  is  shown  in  Figure 
73.  It  is  used  on  the  bottom  plate  of  a  drill-press, 
below  the  spindle.  It  is  fitted  so  as  to  exclude  dirt 
and  chips,  and  consists  of  two  bushings,  one  within 
the  other,  and  both  contained  in  an  outside  box  or 
shell  F.  The  outside  bushing  is  plain  and  kept 
stationary  by  a  set-screw  at  G ;  there  is  therefore  no 
wear  on  the  shell  F.  The  inner  bushings  are  bored 
to  suit  different  sizes  of  bar.  They  have  feather  keys 


82 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


and  are  kept  from  lifting  out  by  a  set-screw  running 
in  a  groove  in  the  bushing.  This  inside  bushing  is 
flanged  on  top,  covering  over  the  inside  bush  and 


FIG.  73. — GUIDE  Box  FOR  BORING-BAR.    (RIEHLES.) 

joints,  and  both  rest  on  a  shoulder  corresponding 
with  the  bottom  flange  of  the  outside  shell.  This 
apparatus  has  proved  very  satisfactory  to  the  Riehle 
Bros.,  in  whose  shops  it  originated. 

Boring=Bar.  At  the  Atlantic  Works,  Philadelphia, 
I  found  a  good  boring-bar  consisting  of  a  weldless 
steel  tube  mortised  for  the  cutters ;  one  end  havino- 
a  shank  for  the  machine,  the  other  end  threaded 


FIG.  74. — BORING-BAR.    (ATLANTIC  WORKS.) 

inside  for  a  lengthwise  screw,  as  shown  in  the  illus- 
tration. Between  the  mortises  are  short  lengths  of 
steel  rod,  as  long  as  between  the  mortises.  The 
cutters  have  no  taper ;  they  are  held  by  jamming  in 
the  central  line  of  the  bar,  by  the  set-screw  and  the 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  83 

rods.  This  rig  cannot  spring  as  is  often  the  case 
where  taper  cutters  are  jammed  by  wedges.  A  tube 
15-16  inch  outside  diameter  bores  an  inch  hole. 
Once  closed  up,  the  inner  rods  are  never  removed. 

Boring=Bar  Standards.  In  Mr.  Geo.  C.  Howard's 
shops  in  Philadelphia,  they  have  a  regular  set  of 
standards  for  the  slots,  cutters,  and  keys  for  boring- 
bars.  These  I  give,  as  many  shops  have  none,  and 
it  is  better  and  cheaper  to  have  them : 

Slot  or  mortise,  3-16  the  bar  diameter. 

Slot-length,  the  bar-diameter. 

Cutter- width,  13-16  the  bar-diameter. 

Small  end  of  the  key,  3-16  square  the  diameter  of 
the  bar. 

Taper  end  of  the  key,  one  inch  per  foot. 

Key-length,  the  same  as  the  bar-diameter. 

Thus  for  a  one-inch  bar  the  slot  is  3-16  by  i  inch ; 
the  cutter  13-16  by  13-16  inch. 

Drill-Racks  on  Drill=Presses.  A  great  convenience 
about  a  radial  drill-press  is  a  rack  for  the  drills,  fast- 
ened on  the  sleeve  to  which  the  radial  arm  is 
attached.  A  drill  rack  in  this  position  is  always  in 
reach  of  the  workman,  and  the  drills  are  kept  in 
better  condition  in  this  way  than  if  laid  down  to  get 
knocked  against  each  other  or  against  other  things — 
to  say  nothing  of  their  getting  scattered  or  lost. 

Drill-Press  Heads.  A  convenient  way  of  having 
the  sliding  heads  of  drill-presses  secured  to  the  column 
is  by  a  lever  and  eccentric,  tightening  a  bolt  fitting 
into  a  T  slot  in  the  face  of  the  column — thus  doing 
away  with  the  necessity  of  a  wrench  for  bolt- 
tightening. 

Increasing  the  Span  of  a   Drill=Press  Arm,     as    for 


84 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


drilling  or  boring  holes  at  a  great  distance  from  the 
edge  of  a  plate  or  table,  may  be  done  by  such  a  device 
as  is  shown  in  Figure  75.  In  this  case  the  sleeve  C  is 
slipped  over  the  rack-spindle  and  clamped  fast,  while 
D  is  fitted  and  screwed  tight  to  the  driving-spindle. 


FIG.  75. — INCREASING  SPAN  OF  DRILL  PRESS  ARM.  (RIEHLES.) 

By  gearing  this  to  the  drill-socket  spindle  E,  the 
rotation  is  extended  to  a  distance  equal  to  the  distance 
between  socket-centers.  In  this  case  it  is  necessary 
either  to  cross  the  belt  of  the  press,  or  to  use  left- 
handed  drills  and  boring-cutters.  This  is  from  the 
practice  of  Riehle  Bros. 

For  flaking  Hand=Holes  and  man-holes  in  a  hurry, 
as  for  special  tank  work,  there  is  often  a  good  deal 
of  delay  by  marking  out  the  outline  of  a  more  or  less 
perfect  ellipse  (misscalled  an  oval)  and  then,  having 
drilled  from  forty  to  seventy-five  holes  all  around  it, 
chipping  out  the  metal  within  the  drill-holes.  The 
same  general  effect  can  be  done  much  more  quickly 
and  more  cheaply,  by  slotting  the  end  of  a  drill  - 
spindle  and  passing  through  it  a  turned-down  tool , 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  85 

setting  this  so  as  to  cut  a  circle  of  say  three  inches 
diameter,  and  cutting  out  two  such  holes  five  inches 
apart,  the  line  joining  their  diameters  being  in  the 
line  of  the  longest  axis  of  the  desired  man-hole.  Then 
changing  the  setting  of  the  tool  so  as  to  cut  out  a 
circle  five  inches  in  diameter,  and,  centering  this 
half  way  between  the  centers  of  the  other  circles, 
cutting  out  a  third  hole,  the  projecting  metal  on  each 
side  may  be  chipped  away  in  a  gentle  curve  that  is 
tangent  to  the  circular  arcs,  and  the  resulting  hole 
will  be  near  enough  to  shape  and  smooth  enough  in 
outline  for  all  practical  purposes. 

A  similar  principle  may  be  applied  to  laying  out 
the  plate,  with  three  circles  of  two  radii,  whether  the 
plate  is  to  be  run  inside  and  held  by  an  arch-piece  to 
a  single  central  bolt,  or  by  bolts  all  around  this  rim. 

Drill-Chucks.  One  form  of  drill-chuck  which  is 
not  patented  and  is  recommended  by  many,  is  for 
straight-shanked  drills,  having  one  flat  side  parallel 
with  the  axis.  The  hole  in  the  socket  is  punched 
hot  and  turned  true  with  the  hole.  A  thumb-screw 
holds  the  drill  in  place.  Another  way  is  with  a  flat 
side  to  the  drill,  tapering  about  one-eighth  inch  per 
inch  ;  and  the  socket  has  a  hole  by  which  the  drill 
may  be  forced  out  by  a  drift. 

Drill=Chucks  that  screw  to  the  spindles  usually  take 
more  time  and  make  more  trouble  in  screwing  them 
on  and  off  than  they  should.  This  trouble  may  be 
lessened  by  dividing  the  thread  part  on  the  spindles 
into  four  equal  parts,  cutting  away  half  the  thread 
on  two  opposite  quarters,  then  doing  the  same  thing 
with  the  thread  in  the  chuck.  This  will  permit  the 
chuck  to  be  put  on  and  made  fast  by  a  single  quarter- 
turn. 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


Facing  Large  Work  in  the  Drill=Press.  A  cross- 
slide  attachment  for  doing  this  is  shown  in  Figure 
76,  which  is  taken  from  the  practice  of  the  Riehle 
Bros.  Testing  Machine  Co.  It  is  attached  to  the 


FIG.  76  -  FACING  LARGE  WORK  ON  THE  DRILL  PRESS  ARM.  (RIEHLES.) 

drill-press  spindle  at  the  hub-socket  A.  A  hand- 
wheel,  or  spur-wheel,  can  be  used  for  feeding  the 
tool-holder  B  across  the  slide ;  the  tools,  of  square 
steel,  being  readily  elamped  in  the  square  sockets. 

Ball-Handle  Drilling  Fixture.  A  ball  crank-handle 
such  as  is  used  on  a  lathe  slide-rest  is  not  a  very  con- 
venient thing  to  drill ;  and  when  there  are  several  of 
them  to  be  drilled  you  might  find  it  well  to  try  Mr. 
Peter  Schellenbeck's  way.  He  makes  a  frame  A 
long  enough  to  take  in  the  ball-handle  and  having 
two  center-point  set-screws  BB  on  which  he  suspends 
the  ball-handle  itself.  Then  he  makes  a  thimble  <°, 
threaded  outside  and  bored  through  the  center  to  cor- 
respond with  a  hole  through  the  small  ball  of  the 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


handle.  A  hole  is  tapped  through  the  frame  A,  and 
threaded  to  take  in  the  thimble  e.  By  adjusting  the 
screws  BB,  the  ball  d  can  be  brought  exactly  central 
with  the  thimble  e  when  the  latter  is  in  place.  There 
is  another  thimble  F}  also  coned  out  at  one  end  to 
take  in  a  ball,  and  also  threaded  outside;  the  slotted 
hole  through  the  frame  A  is  larger  than  the  diameter 


FIG.  77. — HANDLE-DRILLING  FIXTURE.     (SCHELLENBECK.) 

of  F  to  enable  it  to  slip  through  and  also  have  some 
motion  lengthwise  of  A  ;  and  jam  nuts  J  are  used  on 
F  to  hold  it  in  place  when  it  is  centered  on  the 
middle  ball  G.  The  frame  A  is  planed  at  such 
points  //  as  will  enable  the  drilling  to  be  done 
accurately. 

Clamping  Flanges,  etc.  It  often  happens  that  it  is 
desirable  to  clamp  two  flanges  or  other  pieces  to- 
gether temporarily,  as  while  drilling  bolt-holes  mark- 
ing the  position  of  bolt-hole  centers  in  one  piece  to 
correspond  with  those  in  the  other,  etc.  To  do  this 
there  may  be  used  any  one  of  a  number  of  devices, 
some  of  which  are  here  shown. 

The  first,  illustrated  in  Figure  78,  consists  of  a  pair 
of  pincer-like  clamps  having  a  movable  fulcrum  by 


88 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


which  the  lever-age  may  be  altered.  There  are  two 
jaws,  A  and  B,  exactly  alike,  and  each  having 
rounded  notches  in  which  there  may  engage  a  link 
of  rectangular  outline  and  round  cross  section,  C. 
The  jaws  are  corrugated  or  toothed  so  as  to  prevent 
slipping  ;  and  the  handles  are  pressed  together  (which 
causes  the  jaws  also  to  be  pressed  together)  by  a 


Jl 


FIG.  78  TO  82. — CLAMPING  FLANGES,  ETC. 

pair  of  wooden  wedges  WW.  For  these,  a  screw 
may  be  substituted.  These  will  clamp  flanges  that 
have  no  holes  at  all  in  them,  and  does  not  take  up 
much  room  crosswise. 

Where  the  bolt-holes  are  already  in  the  flanges, 
the  slight  device  shown  in  Figure  79  will  answer  ad- 
mirably, consisting  of  a  bolt  with  a  large  head  and 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  89 

slotted  stem,  through  which  there  is  thrust  a  thin 
wide  cutter  C.  This  may  be  used  with  or  without 
washers,  according  to  the  thickness  of  the  flanges. 

Figure  80  shows  a  modification  of  this.  Instead  of 
there  being  a  slot  through  the  shank  of  the  bolt, 
there  is  only  a  series  of  round  holes,  through  any 
desired  one  of  which  there  may  be  thrust  a  round 
pin ;  and  wedges  driven  between  this  pin  and  the 
lower  flange  will  tighten  up  the  hole. 

Figure  81  shows  the  ordinary  screw  clamp  which 
may  be  used  with  or  without  plugs  between  it  and 
the  flanges  ;  and  Figure  82  is  the  same  thing  used 
without  any  screw,  wooden  wedges  taking  the  place 
of  the  latter. 

Start! ng=Drill.  Before  you  start  to  drill  a  hole  in 
solid  metal,  you  will  find  that  an  angular  starting- 
tool  about  like  this  sketch  will  come  in  handy. 


FIG.  83. — STARTING  DRILL. 

Clamp  it  in  the  tool-post  and  true  up  the  end  of  the 
work  about  the  size  of  the  drill ;  then  when  you  start 
your  drill  proper  it  will  be  more  apt  to  run  true. 

Centering-Drill.  At  the  Atlantic  Works,  Philadel- 
phia, there  was  produced  some  time  ago  a  centering- 
drill  shown  in  figure  84  and  consisting  of  a  round 
piece  of  steel  ground  to  a  point  and  slit  up  axially  ; 
then  placed  in  the  lathe  and  ground  with  the  appa- 
ratus used  for  grinding  the  lathe-centers  in  position. 


9° 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


The  spring  of  the  points  due  to  the  slit  and  to  the 
pressure  of  grinding,  causes  the  cutting  edges  to 
twist,  taking  the  shape  shown  in  the  cross  section  ; 
and  when  turned  in  the  direction  in  which  it  was 
ground  it  countersinks  very  smoothly.  When  fed 


FIG.  84. — CENTERING  DRILL.     (ATLANTIC  WORKS.) 

too  hard  the  points  close  together  and  the  drill  ceases 
to  cut;  but  this  can  easily  be  avoided.  Its  advan- 
tages are  that  it  does  not  chatter,  and  may  be  sharp- 
ened very  readily  without  changing  its  shape. 

Twist  Drills  in  Sheet  Brass  sometimes  have  a  habit 
of  leaving  a  feather  edge  at  the  back  of  the  hole.  Mr. 
Wm.  Wilkinson,  of  Philadelphia,  states  that  they 
will  pass  through  more  easily  and  leave  less  feather 


FIG.  85.— TWIST  DRILL  FOR  SHEET  BRASS.    (WILKINSON.) 

edge  if  the  front  of  the  flute  is  ground  back  as  from 
A  to  the  dotted  line  E  in  Figure  85,  also  if  the  end 
faces  CD  are  given  more  angle  than  for  wrought  or 
other  iron. 


MACI1IXE  SHOP  CHAT.  91 

Drills  for  Working  Hardened  Steel.  Once  in  a 
while  you  want  to  drill  a  piece  of  hardened  steel  or 
of  chilled  iron  (in  the  regular  line  of  business;  not 
necessarily  with  burglarious  intent)  and  then  3-011 
often  find  that  you  have  run  into  a  stumbling-block. 
If  the  material  is  not  excessively  hard,  try  hard- 
ening in  mercury  (I  have  pierced  files  with  a  drill 
thus  hardened) ;  or  you  may  try  a  ' 4  self-hardening '  * 
brand,  some  of  which  cannot  be  cut,  filed  or  punched 
cold,  but  is  easily  shaped  cold  on  a  grindstone  or 
emery-wheel  without  destroying  its  temper,  and  by 
heating  it,  may  be  cut  or  forged  to  any  shape. 
While  hot  or  warm  you  must  be  careful  not  to  dip  it 
in  water  or  other  liquid.  In  forging  it,  it  must  be 
heated  slowly  and  thoroughly  to  a  bright  red,  and 
kept  evenly  hot.  In  drawing  to  shape  it  should  have 
frequent  heats.  You  must  take  care  not  to  hammer 
it  too  cold  nor  to  allow  it  to  get  down  to  a  black  heat 
while  forging.  After  shaping,  it  must  cool  slowly  in 
the  air  until  perfectly  cold,  and  on  no  account  be 
dipped  in  water. 

As  Regards  the  Best  Form  of  Drill  for  this  Work 
there  are  those  who  consider  that  the  ordinary  twist 
drill  is  not  a  desirable  implement  with  which  to  do  it. 
One  drill  which  has  been  highly  spoken  of  for  this 
purpose  is  endorsed  by  its  originator,  a  Mr.  Sharp, 
of  Omaha,  and  is  made  by  grinding  the  cutting  edge 
of  a  twist  drill  as  near  as  possible  like  a  flat  drill. 
This  machinist  thinks  that  for  drilling  tool  steel, 
however,  there  is  nothing  like  a  plain  flat  drill. 

Drilling  in  Glass.  The  Yale  &  Towne  Manufact- 
uring Co.  has  occasion  to  drill  7-16  inch  holes  in 
glass  J-inch  thick.  This  is  done  by  using  No.  5  H 
emery,  with  water  instead  of  oil  of  turpentine  as  a 


92  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

lubricant.  The  workman  can  do  30  to  40  holes  per 
hour ;  the  drill  running  2000  turns  per  minute  and 
the  tool  being  a  tube,  of  which  about  an  inch  is  used 
up  for  every  40  holes.  The  emery  must  be  kept 
well  washed  and  clean ,  with  the  dust  resulting  from 
the  abrasion  of  the  glass  removed  therefrom. 

Drilling  Long  Holes.  Many  who  have  essayed  to 
drill  long  holes  with  the  hog- nosed  drill  have  wished 
that  they  had  never  been  born.  The  principal  fun 
comes  in  when  the  drill  has  been  withdrawn  and  the 
cuttings  washed  out,  when  by  reason  of  the  contraction 
of  the  metal  in  the  shaft  the  drill  will  not  enter  to  the 
bottom  again.  Tying  waste  around  the  shaft  and 
keeping  everything  flooded  with  water  helps  things 
along  by  keeping  cool,  but  has  its  material  and  moral 
disadvantages.  A  better  way  yet  is  to  weld  a  twist- 
drill  of  ordinary  length  on  a  steel  rod  of  less  diameter 
(say  a  J-inch  rod  for  a  17-32 -inch  drill)  using  no 
more  oil  than  is  absolutely  necessary  on  the  drill 
itself  to  keep  it  from  cutting  the  sides.  This  dry 
drilling  enables  the  removal  of  the  chips  better  then 
where  it  is  attempted  to  flood  them  out  with  oil. 

For  Splicing  Drills— as  where  a  hole  has  to  be  bored 
that  requires  drills  from  five  to  twenty  times  as  long 
as  the  ordinary  drill  is,  although  the  drill-hole  itself 
does  not  require  to  be  of  excessive  depth — take  a 
piece  of  wrought  iron  or  soft  steel  rod  about  double 
the  drill-diameter,  make  in  its  end  a  hole  with  the 
drill  itself,  absolutely  parallel  with  the  axis  of 
the  rod,  and  about  four  drill-diameters  deep,  cool 
the  drill-shank  (assumed  to  be  cylindrical)  and  heat 
the  drilled  rod-end  ;  insert  the  drill-shank  in  the  hole, 
absolutely  parallel  with  the  axis,  and  you  will  have 
a  shrink  fit  which  will  be  firm  enough  to  hold  the 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  93 

drill,  yet  which  can  be  made  to  let  go  when  you  are 
through  with  the  job  and  want  the  drill  again. 

Accurate  Drilling.  In  the  average  shop,  when  a 
workman  has  a  hole  to  drill  he  makes  his  cross-marks 
on  a  chalked  surface  with  a  scriber,  then  takes  a 
prick-punch  and  marks  a  center  (which  may  or  may 
not  correspond  with  the  exact  intersection  of  the  cross- 
majks) ,  scribes  a  circle,  takes  his  punch  and  makes 
four  prick-marks  as  nearly  as  he  can  on  the  circle, 
and  then  proceeds  to  drill  the  hole ;  drilling  away 
these  prick-marks.  The  chances  are  about  even  up 
that  he  will  not  get  the  hole  properly  centered  ;  also 
that  if  it  is  wrong  that  fact  does  not  appear. 

In  the  Bilgram  shops,  the  circle  is  scribed  a  trifle 
larger  than  the  hole  is  to  be,  and  deep  enough  not  to 
be  obliterated  by  the  chips ;  no  prick-marks  are  made, 
and  the  workman  is  compelled  to  drill  inside  the 
circle,  using  the  latter  itself  for  the  "  witness.'' 

This  is  much  better  to  drill  to  than  the  four  marks, 
made  with  greater  or  less  (usually  less)  accuracy  to 
represent  where  a  circle  is  or  was ;  and  when  the  hole 
is  drilled,  the  circle,  being  still  visible,  shows  whether 
or  not  the  hole  is  in  the  proper  position,  and  if  it  is 
not,  how  much  * l  out n  it  is. 

Twist-Drill  Clearance.  If  the  clearance  of  a  twist- 
drill  is  not  perfect,  the  drill  will  not  cut ;  the  applica- 
tion of  power  to  force  it  to  cut  will  either  crush  or 
split  it.  The  proper  angle  for  the  cutting-edge  is  59  . 

Drill=Speed.  The  Cleveland  Twist  Drill  Co.  got 
tired  of  having  people  use  its  drills  at  the  wrong 
speed  and  then  complaining  that  they  did  not  give 
satisfaction ;  so  it  compiled  a  table  showing  how  fast 
drills  should  be  used.  For  steel  the  speed  is  natural- 
ly slower,  and  for  brass  faster,  than  for  iron ;  and 


94  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

when  using  the  drills  in  steel,  wrought  iron  or  malle- 
able iron  it  will  be  necessary  to  use  plenty  of  oil,  or  a 
solution  of  oil,  potash  and  water.  The  speeds  run 
for  iron,  from  1750  for  1-16  inch,  through  220 
for  J  inch,  90  for  inch,  55  for  ij  inch,  45  for 
2,  inch,  and  30  for  3  inch.  For  brass,  2000  for 
i  1-16  inch,  375  for  J  inch,  145  for  inch,  100  for 
ij  inch,  55  for  2  inch,  35  for  3  inch;  and  for  steel, 
1150  for  i  i- 1 6  inch.,  145  for  J  inch,  60  for  inch, 
45  for  ij  inch,  30  for  2  inch,  and  20  for  3  inch. 
For  other  sizes  the  speeds  come  in  the  same  propor- 
tion— not  a  regular  proportion,  but  one  having  a  slid- 
ing ratio : — thus  for  iron,  i  inch  has  90,  ^  inch  220, 
and  2  inch  45. 

Oiling  Long  Drills.  Sometimes  it  is  necessary  to 
make  a  very  long  drill-hole  of  comparatively  small 
diameter ;  and  in  doing  this  work  goes  bravely  on  for 
the  first  few  feet,  but  after  that  there  is  not  only  the 
trouble  of  backing  out  to  get  rid  of  the  chips,  but  the 
nuisance  of  having  to  oil  the  cutting  portion.  In  the 
Pratt  &  Whitney  shops  the  latter  trouble  is  done  away 
with  by  forming  along  the  drill  a  flute  or  channel, 
straight  or  spiral,  according  as  the  drill  is  or  is  not  of 
the  twist  type  ;  and  then  by  brazing  in  a  strip  of  brass, 
closing  up  this  channel  externally  so  that  it  acts  as  a 
duct  for  oil,  while  at  the  same  time  not  catching  any 
chips.  Externally  it  is  turned  off  true  with  the  out- 
side surface  of  the  drill  itself,  so  that  it  offers  no  ob- 
struction in  working.  Oil  is  forced  in,  and  comes 
out  with  the  chips. 

This  is  not  a  cheap  tool  to  make,  but  it  is  much 
cheaper  to  use  it  than  to  have  the  tool  break  in  the 
hole. 

By  the  way,  a  propos  of  long  drilling,   Bement  & 


MACHINE  SHOT  CHAT.  95 

Miles  in  making  a  small  35-foot  long  hole  (three- 
fourths  inch  in  diameter)  through  a  cutter-bar  for 
ki  Uncle  Sam,"  ran  in  17^  feet  from  each  end,  the 
two  bores  meeting  in  the  middle  and  being  only  one- 
thirty-second  of  an  inch  out  of  axial  exactness.  The 
object  in  this  case  was  merely  to  lighten  the  bar. 

Drilling  Holes  in  Water-flams  While  They  are  Full 
is  one  of  the  unusual  jobs  that  a  machinist  sometimes 
gets  for  the  first  time  without  being  exactly  settled 


FIG.  86. — DRILLING  HOLES  IN  WATER  MAINS. 
I 

in  his  mind  as  to  how  it  is  to  be  done.  Figure  86 
shows  in  a  general  way  one  way  of  accomplishing  it, 
and  needs  very  little  explanation.  There  is  a  clamp 


96  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

which  surrounds  the  main  and  which  has  on  one  side 
a  boss  which  is  bored  and  tapped  for  a  male  thread 
on  the  side  of  a  cock,  the  plug  on  the  upper  side  of 
the  shell  of  which  is  bored  exactly  the  diameter  of 
the  drill  which  is  to  be  used.  The  plug  being 
"open,"  the  drill  is  inserted  in  the  hole  in  the 
side  of  the  shell  and  through  the  plug,  the  ratchet 
and  c  (  old  man ' '  or  other  appliances  are  put  in 
place,  and  the  work  of  drilling  in  the  side  of  the 
pipe  itself  is  commenced.  When  the  drill  has  gone 
clear  through,  as  may  readily  be  told  by  the  leakage 
or  by  other  signs,  the  ratchet  is  removed  (the  plug 
will  come  out  by  the  pressure  on  its  end  unless  this 
latter  is  comparatively  slight)  and  the  plug  turned 
by  a  wrench  previously  applied  to  the  squared 
end.  Then  the  service-piping  may  be  connected  to 
the  body  of  the  cock,  which  is  kept  in  place  by  the 
clamp-ring.  Of  course  this  latter  has  packing 
between  it  and  the  side  of  the  main ;  sheet  lead  or 
copper  answering  well. 

««  Horse  "  and  ««  American  "  Tapers.  There  are  still 
shops  which  have  twist-drills  and  sockets  of  the  old 
4  *  American  '  *  taper,  and  sometimes  it  is  bothersome 
to  work  them  in  with  the  "  Morse,"  as  the  Ameri- 
can is  9-16  inch  to  the  foot,  and  the  Morse  is  f  inch  ; 
the  two  not  interchanging  in  the  same  sockets  up  to 
ij  inches  diameter,  although  they  do  from  i  9-32 
inch  to  2  inch,  inclusive. 

Drilling  Square  Holes.  I  have  recently  heard  a 
story  which  reminds  me  very  much  of  the  condition 
of  affairs  at  Ridley's  shop.  A  little  girl,  very  much 
excited,  ran  into  the  parlor,  which  was  full  of  com- 
pany, and  exclaimed  "Mamma,  just  think  of  it," 
* '  Think  of  what,  darling  ?"  "  Our  cat  has  a  whole 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  97 

lot  of  twins,  and  I  didn't  even  know  she  was 
married ! ' ' 

Ridley  is  very  much  excited  over  a  new  machine 
for  boring  square  holes  with  a  rotating  tool,  when,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  he  has  been  doing  the  same  thing  for 
years  on  about  every  seventh  job  that  has  come  into 
the  shop.  There  isn't  a  drill-press  in  his  place  that 
is  not  full  of  lost  motion ;  and  the  result  is  that  the 
spindles  wabble  at  a  great  rate,  and  never  make  a 
round  hole  unless  luck  is  dead  in  his  favor. 

Now  the  square-hole  machine  is  only  a  develop- 
ment of  the  wabbling  drill-press  idea.  Ridley  has 
been  brought  up  to  the  idea  that  square  holes  cannot 
be  drilled  by  a  rotating  tool,  and  that  something  in 
the  way  of  a  drill,  or  of  a  slotting- tool,  is  required  to 
make  them.  But  here  he  has  been  making  them,  in 
away,  ever  since  his  drill-press  commenced  to  get 
out  of  truth,  and  that  is  over  twenty-five  years  to  my 
knowledge,  for  it  is  over  that  length  of  time  since  I 
first  used  to  peep  in  and  wonder  how  mechanics 
could  work  in  the  dark. 

Cutting  Teeth  in  Large  Quadrants.  In  almost 
every  shop  there  is  an  odd  job,  not  suitable  in  size 
or  some  other  requirement  for  the  tools  at  command  ; 
and  to  avoid  getting  an  extra  machine  some  special 
fixture  is  made  and  adapted  to  a  machine  in  stock. 
Such  a  problem  confronted  the  Riehle  Bros.  Testing 
Machine  Co.  in  the  requirement  to  cut  teeth  in  a 
quadrant  of  a  48-inch  gear.  One  milling-machine 
being  usually  busy  on  small  gears,  a  plain  (not  uni- 
versal) milling-machine  was  adapted  to  cut  this 
large  diameter  quadrant,  which  was  of  narrow  face 
and  light  in  casting.  As  shown  in  Figure  87  there 
is  a  T-iron  base- frame  or  box,  in  which  is  pivoted 


98  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

the  stud  "I."  On  this  stud  rotates  a  worm-wheel 
having  the  same  number  of  teeth  as  the  gear  to  be 
cut.  This  gear  has  a  sleeve  to  which  is  clamped  the 
gear  or  quadrant  to  be  cut,  fastened  by  the  nut  2.  A 
bracket  3  carries  the  worm-shaft  with  the  operating 
crank.  One  turn  of  the  crank  advances  the  gear  to 
be  cut  the  proper  pitch-distance,  and  a  pin  at  the 
point  3  of  the  bracket  answers  as  a  stop  at  which  to 
rest  the  crank  at  each  turn.  The  nut  4  on  the  stud 


.  o 

FIG.  87.— CUTTING  TEETH  IN  LARGE  QUADRANTS.    (RIEHLES.) 

is  alternately  tightened  and  released  as  the  tooth  is 
cut,  and  then  shifted  to  the  next  space.  5  and  6  are 
simple  washers  to  admit  of  adjustment  and  antifric- 
tion. 7  is  the  milling-cutter  ;  which  in  this  case  is 
fed  down  by  hand  through  the  tooth,  the  depth  of 
the  latter  being  regulated  by  the  cross-slide,  which  is 
clamped  fast  when  once  set.  To  look  at  the  milling- 
machine  without  this  fixture,  you  would  not  feel  en- 
couraged to  try  to  cut  a  gear  of  such  large  diameter. 
Inserted=Tooth  Hill  ing-Cutters.  While  going 
through  the  shops  of  the  Brown  &  Sharpe  Manufact- 
uring Co.  I  saw  a  good  many  things  which  are  not  to 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


99 


be  met  with  in  the  majority  of  machine-shops  in  this 
country.  Among  them  was  a  form  of  milling-cutter 
with  insertable  teeth,  the  hub  or  center  in  which  they 
were  held  being  of  cast-iron  arranged  to  be  keyed  to 
an  arbor  and  having  on  its  circumference  half  as  many 
spaces  as  there  are  to  be  inserted  teeth.  The  fronts 
and  backs  of  the  projections  forming  or  formed  by 
the  spaces  are  milled  off  smooth  and  radial,  and  the 
teeth,  which  have  full  fronts  and  backs,  are  slipped 


FIGS.  88  AND  89. — TNSERTED-TOOTH  MlLLING-CUTTERS. 
(BROWN  &  SHARPE.) 

in  in  pairs  so  that  the  front  of  one  fits  against  the 
back  of  one  projection,  and  the  back  of  the  one  direct- 
ly behind  it  comes  against  the  front  of  the  projection 
next  back.  This  leaves  a  wedge-shaped  space 
between  the  back  of  the  front  tooth  of  the  pair  and 
the  front  of  the  back  one.  Into  this  there  is  slipped 
a  wedge-shaped  piece  of  cast  iron,  which  is  bored 
lengthwise  to  receive  a  screw  that  enters  the  hub  or 
center  radially  and  which,  on  being  tightened  up, 
draws  the  wedge  towards  the  center  of  the  hub  and 


ioo  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

crowds  the  inserted  teeth  against  the  projections. 
The  amount  of  projection  of  the  teeth  may  be  varied 
by  packing-pieces  of  paper,  as  for  instance  when 
after  grinding  they  have  become  slightly  shorter,  or 
if  it  be  desired  to  give  every  other  one  a  trifle  extra 
working  depth. 

Cutters  thus  made  have  the  advantages  that  they 
are  much  cheaper  in  first  cost  than  solid  cutters ;  that 
the  form  of  the  teeth  may  be  altered  at  will,  each 


FlGS.  90  AND  QI. — INSERTED-TOOTH  MlLLING-CUTTERS. 
(BROWN  &  SHARPE.) 

\ 

cast-iron  hub  or  center  having  if  desired  several  sets 
of  teeth  of  varying  profile  or  width  ;  and  the  breaking 
of  any  one  of  the  teeth  does  not  ruin  the  entire  tool. 
The  sharpening,  also,  may  be  done  most  efficiently 
with  minimum  trouble,  and  calls  for  less  skill  and 
simpler  appliances  than  the  grinding  of  the  solid 
cutters. 

A  front  view  of  such  cutters  is  shown  in  Figure  88, 
and  a  side  view  in  Figure  89. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  101 

A  variation  of  application  of  this  principle  is  seen 
in  Figures  90  and  91,  in  which  there  is  but  one  tooth 
for  each  space  between  the  projections  ;  and  the  teeth 
are  held  in  by  radial  screws  passing  through  conical 
steel  thimbles  relieved  on  one  side  and  passing 
through  the  projections  so  as  to  lock  the  teeth  in 
place. 

In  both  styles  the  hub  is  keyed  to  the  arbor  of  the 
milling-machine  in  the  ordinary  fashion. 

Other  cutters,  not  from  the  Brown  &  Sharpe  shops, 
are  shown  below. 


FIGS.    92   AND   93. — INSERTED-TOOTH  MILLING-CUTTERS. 

Figures  92  and  93  show  another  form  of  inserted- 
tooth  mills  having  keyways  in  the  arbor-hole  and 
the  teeth  held  endwise  by  screws  tapped  in  the 
body  below  the  mill.  Cuts  are  made  for  the  dove- 
tail inserted  teeth,  and  having  the  heads  of  the  screws 
bear  against  shoulders  formed  in  the  ends  of  the  mill- 
teeth,  so  that  their  overhanging  ends  can  make 
radial  cuts  without  having  the  screw-heads  in  the 
way.  At  one  end  of  the  hub  these  screws  are 


\ 
102  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

screwed  down  hard  on  the  hub  ;  at  the  other  the  hub 
is  countersunk  for  the  heads  so  that  the  screw-head 
bears  on  the  end  of  the  mill- tooth. 


FlGS.   94  AND  95. — INSERTED-TOOTH   MlLLING-CUTTERS. 

Figures  94  and  95  show  inserted-tooth  cutters 
having  parallel  sides  put  in  straight  radial  cuts  in 
the  hub.  The  teeth  slide  in  the  grooves  ;  and  about 
midway  of  the  hub-depth  there  are  taper  holes 
reamed  to  receive  ordinary  taper  pins  as  keys. 

Adjustable  Cutters  for  Grooving.  There  are  many 
jobs  of  plane  work  for  which  it  often  does  not  pay  to 
make  a  special  milling-cutter,  so  they  are  done  on 
the  planer,  although  not  so  well.  It  is,  however, 
possible  to  have  some  cutters  that  can  do  a  variety 
of  work,  or  at  least  which  will  work  to  more  than 
one  size.  Of  course  every  one  is  familiar  with  the 
4 'built-up"  cutter  for  OG  and  similar  work,  and 
knows  that  more  than  one  combination  may  be  made 
of  the  sections  of  such  cutters,  in  shops  having  much 
milling  to  do ;  but  I  have  not  seen  in  as  many  shops 
as  I  should  ' '  packed  out ' '  cutters  like  that  shown 
here  in  the  sketch,  by  which  several  widths,  without 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


103 


a  certain  range,  may  be  milled  by  only  changing  the 
packing. 

The  two  parts  (which  need  not  be  alike)  have 
their  faces  on  one  side  at  right  angles  to  the  axis, 
and  the  other,  inclined  at  an  angle  of  say  ten  degrees. 
The  thick  or  wider  side  of  one  and  the  thin  or  narrow 
side  of  the  other  being  brought  together  on  the  axis, 
with  a  packing-piece  of  leather  or  other  material 
between  them,  the  cutter  will  mill  a  width  equal  to 


FIG.  96. — ADJUSTABLE  CUTTERS  FOR  GROOVING. 

the  sum  of  the  widths  of  the  thick  and  the  thin  face, 
plus  the  thickness  of  the  packing.  The  narrowest 
that  this  combination  will  mill  is  equal  to  the  width 
of  the  two  when  put  together  without  packing  ;  and 
the  widest  cut  that  they  will  make  is  equal  to 
that,  plus  very  nearly  the  difference  between  the 
wide  and  the  narrow  side.  That  is,  if  the  cutters 
are  alike  and  have  widths  of  three  inches  and  one 
inch  respectively,  of  adjacent  cutting- faces,  they  will 


104  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

mill  four  inches  as  a  minimum  and  very  nearly  six 
as  a  maximum ;  the  range  between  varying  by  an 
amount  as  small  as  the  thickness  of  a  single  sheet  of 
paper. 

Another  way  of  doing  this  is  shown  by  Brown  & 
Sharpe,  and  has  the  advantage  that  the  combined 
thickness  of  the  two  cutters  is  rather  more  than  the 
width  of  the  groove  which  they  cut,  because  their 
teeth  are  arranged  "  staggering. ' J  Hard  tracing- 
paper  is  good  as  a  packing  between  them  to  take  up 
wear. 

Machine-Steel  Hilling-Cutters.  One  of  the  most 
expensive  items  about  a  shop  may  be  made  that  of 
making  and  sharpening  milling-cutters ;  mounting 
up  to  the  thousands  of  dollars  in  a  very  short  time 
in  a  shop  of  any  magnitude ;  and  their  cost  is  greatly 
increased  by  not  only  the  high  price  but  the  un- 
certainty of  quality  of  tool  steel.  The  problem  in 
their  manufacture  and  maintenance  then  is  to  pro- 
duce that  cutter  which  shall  take  off  the  most  pounds 
of  material  with  the  least  cost  for  manufacture  of  the 
cutter,  for  maintaining  this  last  at  the  requisite 
degree  of  sharpness  and  at  the  proper  outline  and 
dimensions,  and  for  driving  it;  as  dull  cutters  or 
those  of  poor  steel  may  prove  uneconomical  by  reason 
of  the  power  that  they  take  to  drive  them,  and  the 
time  of  the  machine  and  tender  that  they  consume. 
In  the  Newton  shops,  I  find  that  they  are  gradually 
abandoning  the  use  of  tool  steel  and  taking  to  that 
of  crucible  machine  steel,  case-hardened.  Such  cut- 
ters and  reamers  are  of  course  much  cheaper  to  make 
than  those  of  tool  steel,  while  their  cut  is  more 
greedy. 

Milling-Cutters  for  Heavy  Work.  To  make  milling- 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


IQ5 


cutters  for  doing  heavy  work  having  no  curved  outlines, 
and  take  greedy  cuts,  and  at  the  same  time  not  to  go 
to  too  great  expense  in  the  matter,  make  a  hub  ot 
wrought  iron  a  trifle  smaller  than  the  external  diam- 
eter of  a  regular  milling-cutter ;  bore  its  periphery 
full  of  radial  holes  one-half  inch  in  diameter,  ar- 
ranged in  parallel  circles  seven-eighths  inch  apart,  the 
holes  in  the  odd  circles  alternating  or  staggering 
with  those  in  the  even  ones ;  and  having  all  the  holes 
of  the  standard  depth  (say  two  inches),  properly 
bottomed.  Then  make  a  number  of  round  tool-steel 
rods  one- half  inch  in  diameter  and  two  and  one-half 
inches  long,  to  be  inserted  in  the  holes  in  the  hub. 
Grind  off  the  end  of  each  at  a  bevel,  giving  all  the 
same  bevel  and  leaving  them  all  of  the  same  length. 
These,  if  given  the  proper  cutting-angle,  will,  on 
being  inserted  in  the  holes  in  the  hub,  constitute 
cutters,  the  work  of  which  will  lap  so  as  to  give  a 
smooth  continuous  cut.  In  order  to  insure  that  each 
cutter  in  each  circle  gets  the  same  amount  of 
work  as  all  the  others  in  that  circle,  they  may  be 
snipped  over  with  an  emery-wheel  while  the  hub 
rotates.  These  same  cutting-pins  may  be  used  in  a 
number  of  hubs,  so  that  you  can  have  the  ad- 
vantage of  a  number  of  large  cutters  without  the 
expense  of  forging,  profiling  and  hardening  such 
large  masses. 

Coarse=Toothed  Cutters  are  often  very  desirable ; 
they  can  be  sharpened  readily  without  drawing  the 
temper  and  every  cutting-edge  can  be  made  to  cut 
faster  ;  there  is  not  so  much  sliding  and  rubbing  as 
there  are  many  teeth.  In  fact,  where  there  is  a  great 
number  of  teeth,  there  is  often  a  certain  burnishing 
down  of  the  metal  by  them,  which  makes  it  all  the 


106  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

harder  to  cut.  Of  course  the  cheapness  of  a  cutter 
having  two  to  four  teeth  is  a  great  advantage ;  and 
sometimes  such  a  cutter  can  be  made  and  the  job 
done  in  less  time  than  it  would  take  to  make  a  com- 
plete circular  mill.  End-cutting  tools  should  have 
fewer  teeth  than  those  which  cut  on  their  sides. 

Spiral  Flutes  in  Milling  Cutters.  Very  often  when 
a  milling-cutter  fails  to  come  up  to  the  expectations 
of  the  man  who  made  it  or  designed  it,  the  stock  is 
complained  of  as  being  soft  or  unequal,  when  it  is 
only  the  form  of  teeth  (for  they  may  be  called  so) 
or  the  number  and  disposition  of  flutes,  which  causes 
the  trouble. 


A    C  B   D 


FIG.  97.— SPIRALLY-GROOVED  MILLING-CUTTERS. 

In  the  Newton  Machine  Tool  Works,  after  making 
many  experiments  on  cylindrical  cutters  for  slabbing, 
one  was  found  which  at  first  gave  great  promise  of 
long,  hard  work.  It  was  made  with  flutes  parallel 
with  the  axis,  and  then  each  flute  was  cut  up  by 
spiral  channels  so  that  the  entire  tool  presented  a 
number  of  lozenge-shaped  teeth  arranged  about  its 
circumference  in  parallel  spirals  ;  the  teeth  being 
probably  three-eighths  inch  lengthwise  of  the  cutter 
and  the  spiral  channels  one- fourth  inch  wide  ;  while 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  107 

the  parallel  flutes  were  about  one-fourth  inch  wide  and 
one-half  inch  between  centers.  It  would  be  supposed 
that  such  a  cutter  would  mill  right  along  sweetly 
without  hitch  or  mark ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  left 
very  perceptible  ridges.  This  was  doubtless  because 
the  spacing  was  too  regular.  Another  form  was 
tried  (like  the  former),  of  case-hardened  crucible 
machine-steel,  with  parallel  flutes  as  before,  but 
instead  of  the  teeth  being  divided  by  regular  spiral 
channels,  they  were  somewhat  irregularly  divided  by 
cuts  which  formed  nowhere  a  complete  nor  a  regular 
spiral.  The  result  was  very  greedy  cutting  without 
being  marred  by  lines  as  before.  See  Figure  98. 
This  is  probably  somewhat  on  the  same  principle 


FIG.  98. — MILLING-CUTTERS.    (NEWTON  MACHINE-TOOL  WORKS.) 

that  hand-cut  files  are  considered  (without  usually  as- 
signing any  reason)  to  do  better  work  than  machine- 
cut  ;  because  the  latter  as  usually  made  (in  fact  as  made 
by  all  manufacturers  except  perhaps  the  Nicholson 
Co.)  are  too  regularly  spaced;  and  the  matter  also 
calls  to  mind  the  fact  that  taps  with  an  even  number 
of  flutes,  regularly  spaced,  do  not  do  so  good  work  as 
those  with  an  odd  number,  spaced  a  very  trifle  out  of 
symmetry. 

Using  Oil  on  nillingWlachines.     When  you  use  oil 


Io8 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


on  a  milling-machine  with  a  reciprocating  table  like 
a  planer,  there  is  often  some  difficulty  in  getting  the 
oil  conveyed  away  properly  to  the  source  of  supply 
in  order  that  it  may  be  used  over  again.  If  a  rubber 
tube  is  used,  we  all  know  what  will  become  of  it 


FIG.  99 — FLEXIBLE  METAL  OIL- TUBE,    (ALMOND.) 

before  the  oil  has  been  passing  through  it  long.  A 
rigid  tube  is  not  practicable,  let  it  be  ever  so  well 
jointed.  But  I  found  in  Brooklyn  a  flexible  metal 
tube  intended  for  an  entirely  different  purpose,  and  on 
suggesting  that  it  be  used  on  a  u  monitor  ' '  lathe  to 
convey  the  oil  to  the  cutting  point  of  the  tool,  I 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  109 

found  that  it  had  already  been  used  for  conveying  it 
away  both  to  and  from  the  work.  Figure  99  shows 
the  arrangement  by  which  the  oil  is  dripped  in  fine 
streams  all  the  width  of  the  work  ;  then  the  flexible 
metal  tube  carries  it  away  to  be  pumped  up  again. 
For  a  monitor  lathe  there  would  be  needed  a  flexible 
tube  above,  which  would  travel  with  the  turret,  and  a 
rigid  tube  to  convey  the  oil  away  from  the  lathe-bed 
to  the  reservoir. 

Lubricant  for  Hilling-Cutters.  All  sorts  of  mix- 
tures are  used  for  milling-cutters ;  none  of  them  are 
any  too  carefully  applied.  One  that  is  well  recom- 
mended is  made  by  taking  10  pounds  of  whale-oil 
soap,  15  of  sal-soda,  and  2  gallons  of  the  best  lard 
oil ;  shaving  the  soap  so  that  it  will  dissolve  readily, 
putting  the  whole  in  a  clean  forty-gallon  cask  and 
filling  with  water.  When  thoroughly  dissolved  it  is 
ready  for  use. 

Holding  flilling=Cutters.  Where  you  have  milling- 
cutters  with  cylindrical  ends,  you  may  hold  them 
while  in  the  machine  by  means  of  a  chucking-stem 
consisting  of  a  taper  shank  fitting  the  hole  in  the 
machine  spindle,  and  having  an  enlargement  bored  to 
receive  the  cylindrical  cutter-shank,  slotted  through 
to  enable  it  to  be  driven  out,  threaded  at  the  back  to 
receive  a  ring,  and  split  in  three  at  the  end.  Screw- 
ing up  the  ring  clamps  the  cylindrical  cutter-stem. 

To  flill  Cuts  in  the  Rim  of  a  Wheel,  with  the  sides  of 
the  cut  at  equal  angles  with  the  radius,  and  to  do  the 
work  with  a  cutter  of  the  proper  bevel,  but  having  a 
face  at  right-angles  with  its  axis,  offset  and  lower  the 
work  so  that  a  radial  line  along  the  work  at  the  point 
to  be  cut  will  bisect  the  angle  of  the  cutter ;  then  merely 


1 10  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

raising  the  table  will  feed  the  work  into  the  cutter  at 
the  proper  angle,  and  the  cut  will  be  properly  divided 
each  side  of  the  radial  line. 

Axial  Reaming.  Where  it  is  necessary  to  ream  two 
holes  which  have  considerable  space  between  them, 
but  must  be  in  absolute  axial  alignment — as  in  the 
case  of  bearings  on  the  opposite  sides  of  a  machine- 
frame — they  employ  in  the  Hugo  Bilgram  shops  a 
method  which  I  have  never  seen  elsewhere  and  which 
produces  excellent  results.  The  holes  are  first  reamed 
nearly  to  size  ;  then,  the  frames  being  set  up  parallel 
in  proper  position,  the  reaming  is  finished  in  situ ; 
each  hole  is  made  the  point  of  support  for  the  reamer 


FIG.  100. — AXIAL  REAMING. 

while  it  is  reaming  the  opposite  hole,  and  it  is  drawn 
through  instead  of  being  forced  through  ;  that  is,  the 
reamer  is  worked  backwards.  Its  form  is  about  as 
shown  in  Figure  100:  A  being  the  cutting  portion 
(of  the  "shell"  type),  B  the  shank,  D  the  squared 
end,  and  G  a  tapered  bushing,  the  small  end  of  which 
is  of  the  diameter  of  the  unfinished  and  the  large  end 
that  of  the  finished  hole  ;  the  distance  between  C  and 
A  being  slightly  in  excess  of  that  between  the  frames. 
The  tool  is  of  course  sectional.  This  insures  accurate 
alignment. 

Hilling  vs.  Planing.  The  general  tendency  of 
machine  work  is  to  substitute  rotary  for  reciprocating 
(to-and  fro)  motion  and  rotary  for  stationary  tools. 
We  have  the  circular  saw  instead  of  the  gate-saw,  the 
rotating  emery-wheel  instead  of  the  reciprocating  file, 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  in 

the  rotary  planer  for  many  grades  of  work  (especially 
facing)  instead  of  the  planer  with  reciprocating  bed  ; 
and  now  we  have  milling-machines  especially  con- 
structed to  take  the  place  of  the  planer  with  station- 
ary tool,  for  very  heavy  cuts,  even  in  flat  surfacing  or 
slabbing.  One  of  these  machines  at  the  Watts- 
Campbell  shops  is  reported  by  Mr.  Arnold  as  taking 
2 1  inches  per  minute  feed  steadily  and  a  cut  18  inches 
wide  in  cast  iron,  the  depth  being  about  three-eighths 
inch. 

Hilling  Spirals.  If  you  have  a  milling-machine 
without  a  swiveling  table,  and  have  occasion  to  mill 
a  spiral,  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  set  the  centers  at 
the  required  angle  on  the  platen  ;  or  if  the  platen  is 
not  wide  enough,  make  a  boiler-iron  plate  about  one- 
fourth  inch  thick  and  having  one  edge  cut  off  at  the 
required  angle  to  the  opposite  one ;  clamp  it  to  the 
platen  so  that  the  side  that  is  cut  off  will  be  parallel 
to  the  desired  axial  line.  Fix  a  stud  having  a  roller 
at  its  end  to  some  part  of  the  frame,  so  that  it  will 
bear  on  the  edge  of  the  plate ;  take  out  the  cross-slide 
screw,  and  by  a  weight  keep  the  edge  of  the  plate 
against  the  roller.  Feeding  the  platen  forward  will 
cause  the  cross-slide  and  platen  to  move  together  cross- 
wise. 

Another  way  of  doing  it  is  to  have  the  stud  and 
roller  on  the  platen  and  the  plate  fastened  to  the 
framing. 

Tooth  and  Flute  Spacing.  There  are  cases  where 
regularity  is  not  desirable,  and  one  of  these  cases  is 
in  the  spacing  of  the  teeth  of  milling-cutters  and  the 
flutes  of  taps.  It  will  often  be  found  that  the  chatter- 
ing of  a  tool  is  caused  by  too  great  regularity  in  the 
spacing  of  its  cutting-edges ;  and  packing  with  soap 


U2  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

and  paper,  and  similar  make-shifts,  are  resorted  to. 
The  best  way  is  not  to  have  the  chatter,  and  this 
may  usually  be  prevented  by  a  slight  irregularity  in 
the  spacing. 

Keeping  Hilling-Cutters  Sharp.  Sufficient  attention 
is  not  paid  to  keeping  milling-cutters  sharp.  It 
seems  strange  that  a  man  who  will  take  the  trouble 
to  strop  his  razor  every  time  that  he  shaves  will  work 
right  along  with  dull  milling-cutters,  job  after  job, 
without  noting  whether  or  not  the  tools  are  getting 
into  the  work  by  sharpness  or  by  main  strength.  II 
you  want  to  test  this  and  have  a  job  of  work  to  make 
a  great  number  of  pieces  all  exactly  alike,  start  out 
with  a  good  sharp  cutter  and  note  how  many  pieces 
you  can  handle  in  one  day  of  so  many  hours,  under 
average  working  conditions ;  then  note  how  many 
can  be  made  in  the  second  equal  number  of  hours,  and 
so  on  until  the  job  is  done  or  the  cutter  gets  so  dull 
that  you  simply  cannot  go  on  with  any  satisfaction. 
Then  you  will  see  how  well  sharpening  will  pay  as 
regards  the  labor-cost  for  the  job,  and  the  time  in 
which  a  given  number  can  be  put  out. 

Of  course  with  the  dull  tool  there  is  more  power 
required,  and  there  is  more  strain  on  the  belts  and 
more  wear  and  tear  on  the  milling-machine ;  but  that 
is  more  difficult  to  estimate.  The  same  remark  ap- 
plies to  hack  saws  and  to  most  other  tools  used  about 
a  shop. 

Speed  of  Hilling-Cutters.  To  lessen  the  trouble  of 
calculating  through  all  the  various  steps  usually  taken 
in  order  to  get  the  number  of  rotations  (not  revolu- 
tions) of  a  milling-cutter  in  order  to  give  a  desired 
cutting-speed  at  the  periphery,  divide  135  by  the 
diameter  of  the  cutter  in  inches,  to  get  a  cutting  speed 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  113 

of  aoout  35  per  minute ;  or  divide  150  by  the  diameter 
of  the  cutter  in  inches  for  about  40  feet  per  minute. 
Thus  a  cutter  one  inch  in  diameter  to  run  about  35 
feet  per  minute,  should  make  135  turns  per  minute; 
a  4-inch  cutter  to  cut  about  40  feet  per  minute, 
should  make  only  150  -7-4=37!  turns  per  minute, 
and  so  on. 

Gage  for  Cutters  of  Nut-flilling  flachines.  In  that 
class  of  nut-facing  milling-machines  in  which  the 
nuts  are  strung  on  a  mandrel  and  two  opposite  faces 
milled  simultaneously  by  passing  between  two  rotat- 
ing cutter-heads  with  axes  nearly  at  right  angles  to 
the  mandrel,  and  a  circle  of  cutters  parallel  with  the 
axis,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  all  the  cutters  on 
each  head  shall  project  exactly  the  same  distance,  in 
order  that  each  cutter  shall  get  its  share  of  the  work, 
and  only  this ;  and  that  the  milled  work  may  be  free 
from  scores  or  any  other  kind  of  tool-marks. 

In  order  to  effect  this,  the  usual  method  is  to  have 
a  gage-piece  consisting  of  a  metal  block  having  one 
end  truly  plane,  and  in  this  end  a  square  notch  large 
enough  to  admit  a  cutter  and  as  deep  as  it  is  desired,  to 
allow  each  cutter  to  project  (see  Figure  101). 

All  the  cutters  being  first  set  too  far  out,  they  are 
pushed  back  by  the  gage,  and  then  each  is  held  by  its 
set-screw ;  a  work  requiring  some  time  and  in  which 
occasionally  one  cutter  is  skipped,  leaving  it  project- 
ing too  far  and  scoring  the  work. 

In  place  of  this  I  suggest  such  a  gage  as  shown  in 
Figure  102,  consisting  of  a  wedge-shaped  plate,  having 
the  sides  of  any  vertical  section  parallel,  and  in  hori- 
zontal section  having  as  much  taper  as  the  faces  of 
the  cutter-heads  are  inclined  horizontally  to  give 
clearance  to  the  cutters. 


'SHOP  KINKS  AND 


Two  vertical  projections  on  each  side,  as  high  as  it 
is  desired  to  let  the  cutters  project,  will  touch  the  flat 
face  of  the  cutter-head ;  and  the  plane  but  not  parallel 
surfaces  between  will  truly  gage  the  projection  of  all 
the  cutters  at  once. 


FIGS.  101  AND  102.— GAGES  FOR  MILLING-CUTTERS. 

This  gage  may  best  be  made  by  the  machine  at 
once ;  the  wedge  shape  being  given  by  running  it 
through  vertically. 

The  Grindstone  has  not  yet  been  driven  out  of  the 
machine-shop ;  but  the  way  that  it  is  treated  should 
have  made  any  self-respecting  machine  tool  leave,  if 
it  had  means  of  locomotion.  Ordinarily  the  trough 
is  not  large  enough ;  there  is  no  shield  so  that  the 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  115 

water  will  not  splash,  or  if  there  is  one  it  is  fixed  so 
that  the  stone  can  be  used  from  only  one  side ;  there 
are  no  rests  for  the  tools,  or  if  there  are  they  are  fixed 
so  that  as  the  stone  gets  smaller  the  rests  can  not  be 
moved  towards  the  arbor.  The  bearings  are  usually 
too  small  and  have  no  proper  provision  for  getting  oil 
at  them  and  keeping  grit  from  them.  About  as  often 
as  not  they  are  held  on  their  arbor  by  wooden  wedges 
which  expand  with  the  water  used  on  them,  and  tend 
to  burst  the  stone.  There  should  be  good  sized 
flanges  and  the  washers  should  not  turn  with  the  nuts. 
And  about  as  often  as  not  they  are  used  running  from 
the  workman.  Professional  ' '  grinders ' '  who  grind 
paper-cutter  knives  and  such  articles,  use  the  stone 
running  towards  them. 

I  see  that  you  have  only  one  grindstone  about 
your  shop,  for  every  class  of  tool,  large  and  small, 
wood- working  and  iron-working.  Now  if  you  will 
only  reflect  a  moment  you  will  find  that  it  will  be 
to  your  advantage  to  have  a  harder  stone  for  your 
planer- tools,  and  for  every  tool  that  is  to  work  iron 
or  steel,  than  for  those  which  have  to  cut  only  wood 
— and  soft  wood  at  that,  such  as  I  see  that  you  use 
principally  in  your  pattern-shop. 

I  see,  too,  that  your  man  there  is  holding  his  tool 
so  that  the  stone  rotates  from  him.  As  the  stone  is 
in  tolerable  balance,  he  is  wrong.  So  long  as  the 
stone  is  true  it  should  be  run  towards  the  tool  that  is 
being  ground — that  is,  of  course,  assuming  that  the 
tool  is  held  on  the  upper  side,  and  with  its  cutting- 
edge  inclined  upwards. 

Lathe  vs.  Grinder.  The  late  Morton  Poole,  who 
was  the  father  of  the  modern  high-grade  grinding 
machine,  was  the  first  to  prove  with  absolute  certainty 


n6  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

and  beyond  the  possibility  of  contradiction,  that 
while  no  lathe  can  turn  perfectly  round,  work  can  be 
ground  perfectly  round.  The  reasons  for  this  fact 
are  that  it  is  practically  impossible  to  keep  the  live 
center  of  a  lathe  true  ;  that  when  it  is  out  of  true, 
which  is  nearly  always,  the  fault  is  reproduced  in 
the  work ;  that  you  cannot  cut  without  putting  pres- 
sure on  the  tool ;  and  that  where  the  stock  is  not  of 
uniform  dimensions  and  quality  the  work  of  the  tool 
.varies  with  the  radius  and  hardness  at  the  point  of 
cutting.  In  a  grinding-machine  the  work  turns  on 
dead  centers,  and  the  work  may  be  turned  end  for 
end  without  affecting  its  accuracy ;  and  no  matter 
how  hard  or  how  soft  the  stock  is,  the  wheel  removes 
to  the  same  distance  from  the  center.  When  you 
consider  also  that  the  bearings  of  grin  ding-machines 
are  protected  against  the  emery  dust,  and  that  it  will 
do  as  good  work  on  hard  as  on  soft  stock,  and  will 
handle  work  that  the  lathe  will  not  touch,  you  must 
admit  that  the  grinder  has  high  claims  on  you. 

Emery  Wheels  vs.  Grindstones.  Kmery  and  corun- 
dum wheels  are  gradually  and  effectually  forcing  their 
way  into  shops  and  crowding  grindstoues  out ;  and 
would  do  so  more  rapidly  if  grinding-machines  were 
given  one-half  the  attention  that  they  deserve  and 
require,  and  if  when  there  was  trouble  or  apparent 
trouble,  it  would  be  properly  investigated.  For  in- 
stance, there  is  often  complaint  of  u  soft  sides  "  on 
wheels ;  and  these  are  often  only  in  imagination — the 
difficulty  being  caused  by  gouging  when  grinding, 
because  the  wheel  is  too  soft  for  the  class  of  tools 
that  are  being  ground  on  it,  or  because  the  workmen 
liave  been  grossly  careless.  Sometimes,  also,  a 
wheel  will  sound  and  fe^l,  when  in  use,  as  though  it 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  117 

had  a  low  side,  but  this  will  be  due  only  to  a  small 
hole  or  large  pore,  such  as  is  very  likely  to  be  found 
in  a  wheel  having  that  amount  of  porosity  which  is 
found  to  give  it  the  best  qualities  for  grinding. 

It  will  usually  be  found  that  one  can  take  from  a 
tool,  without  heating  it  enough  to  draw  the  temper 
or  even  to  make  it  too  hot  for  one's  hand,  an  amount 
of  metal  in  a  given  time,  which  would  be  impossible 
with  a  grindstone,  without  drawing  the  temper. 

Bursting  Emery=Wheels.  Quite  a  commotion  in 
one  of  your  shops  as  I  came  along,  Emery- wheel 
burst  and  took  a  piece  of  the  wall  with  it  as  it  went  out 
to  look  for  a  shop  where  they  know  something  about 
such  things  and  how  to  use  them.  Your  foreman 
says  that  that  is  the  second  wheel  that  has  burst  with 
the  same  man,  and  that  he  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  a 
li  hoodoo  n  in  that  particular.  Well,  I  don't  think 
that  there  is  any  luck  about  it.  If  that  man  had  gone 
on  running  emery-wheels  the  way  that  he  has  for  the 
last  six  or  seven  years  and  had  not  had  a  few  of  them 
burst,  I  should  have  considered  it  luck,  and  much 
better  luck  than  he  deserved ;  but  for  him  to  have 
had  two  wheels  burst  in  your  shop,  besides  the  couple 
or  so  that  he  had  fly  all  over  the  face  of  the  earth 
when  he  was  working  for  Adam — I  think  that  is 
only  retribution,  or  dead  certainty,  or  whatever  is 
most  opposed  to  luck  and  most  to  be  expected  from 
certain  regular  causes.  Perhaps  you  are  to  blame 
for  it  a  little,  perhaps  he  is  to  blame  entirely ;  but  I 
would  see  to  it,  if  I  were  you,  that  no  more  burst  in 
your  shop.  The  next  time  that  one  lets  go  it  might 
break  just  the  other  way  and  fly  through  you  or 
some  of  your  employees  instead  of  just  through  the 
wall  and  into  the  scrap-heap. 


318  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

That  man  gets  about  as  tapering  a  mandrel  as  he 
can  find  ;  he  crowds  the  wheel  on  it  so  tightly  that 
the  cone  of  the  mandrel  has  a  tendency  to  break  the 
wheel  apart ;  and  then  he  runs  the  wheel  as  fast  as 
he  can  get  it  to  turn,  and  wonders  that  with  the 
wedging  action  on  the  inside  and  the  so-called  cen- 
trifugal action  all  through  it,  particularly  at  the  rim, 
it  flies.  If  he  will  take  a  parallel  mandrel  that  is  of 
the  same  size  as  the  hole  in  the  wheel,  and  will  put 
some  thick  paper  between  the  collars  and  the  sides 
of  the  wheel,  he  can  hold  it  centrally  without  any 
such  tapering  nonsense,  and  if  it  doesn't  run  true  it 
can  be  made  to  do  so  in  about  five  minutes,  by  a 
diamond-point. 

If  the  makers  of  that  wheel,  and  of  other  emery- 
wheels,  had  thought  it  best  to  use  tapering  mandrels 
with  them,  the  wheels  would  have  had  tapering  holes 
through  them ;  they  would  have  been  much  more  easy 
to  make.  But  the  makers  thought  that  by  putting  a 
cylindrical  hole  in  each  wheel,  the  user  would  u  see 
the  point  "  and  use  a  cylindrical  mandrel. 

Emery-Wheel  Holder  for  Car  Wheels.  It  is  some- 
times desirable  to  have  a  holder  for  an  emery  or  co- 

A  ^ 

71(9  I  I    TAPER  ROUND  PIN 


FIG.  103. — EMERY-WHEEL  HOLDER  FOR  CAR  WHEELS.     (BRIGLEY). 

rundum- wheel  for  use  on  an  ordinary  lathe.    Mr.  John 
J.  Brigley,  of  Watertown,  N.   Y.,  showed  some  time 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


119 


ago  in  the  American  Machinist  a  simple  device  which 
he  employed  for  grinding  car  wheels,  the  illustra- 
tion of  which  is  self-explanatory. 

Making  an  Emery-Wheel.  Sometimes  it  will  be 
found  difficult  to  make  emery  stick  to  a  wooden 
wheel.  Mr.  H.  A.  Seavey,  of  N.  Conway,  N.  H., 
has  found  out  that  if  instead  of  trying  to  make  the 
emery  stick  to  the  wood  we  will  first  glue  on  felt 
or  heavy  woolen  cloth  and  then  smear  it  with  hot 
glue,  and  roll  it  in  emery  heated  quite  hot,  there  will 
be  no  difficulty  about  the  sticking.  Three  coats 
should  be  given.  It  is  the  felt  ring  or  tire  that  does 
the  trick. 

Dust  Flues.  When  one  is  rigging  up  a  temporary 
emery-wheel,  as  on  a  lathe,  and  finds  it  necessary  to 
carry  off  the  dust,  about  as  good  a  way  as  any  is  to 
have  an  ordinary  tin  funnel  to  which  is  attached  a 
rubber  hose  leading  into  a  piece  of  tin  rain-spouting 
in  which  a  small  steam-jet  plays  axially.  This  will 
make  enough  draft  to  carry  away  the  dust  without 
trouble. 


FIG.  104. — FACING-TOOL  FOR  WORMS.    (HARRINGTONS) 

Grinding  Tools  Without  Changing  Their  Shape  is  an 

advantage  when  it  can  be  done.      In  the  Harrington 


120 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


works  they  have  a  special  facing-tool  for  work  on 
worms,  etc.,  which  maybe  kept  always  of  the  same 
contour  and  rake  by  merely  grinding  it  on  the  face  as 
shown  at  a,  Figure  104. 

Grinding  Standard  Gages  is  a  work  of  aggravation 


FIG.  105. — GRINDING  MANDREL  FOR  COLLAR-GAGES. 
and  uncertainty  as  ordinarily  carried  out,   especially 


FIG.  106. — GRINDING  MANDREL  FOR  PLUG  GAGES. 
with  the  collar,  which  is  apt  to  have  the  bore  a  trifle 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  121 

flaring  because  the  grinding  material  meets  the  edge 
of  the  hole  first.  In  the  Pratt  &  Whitney  shops  they 
use  a  mandrel  shown  in  Figure  105 ;  the  length  A  being 
taper  and  having  a  flute  C.  The  lead  is  cast  on  and 
turned  on  the  mandrel.  Driving  the  taper  mandrel 
through  increases  the  diameter  of  the  lap  while  keep- 
ing it  cylindrical. 

For  the  plug  gages  they  use  the  lap  shown  in 
Figure  106  ;  a  cast-iron  cylindrical  body  A  being  split 
partially  through  at  B  and  entirely  through  at  (7, 
the  screw  D  closing  it  to  take  up  wear.  The  split  B 
makes  it  close  more  readily  and  admits  the  grinding 
material. 

For  Grinding  Iron  or  Steel  Balls  a  good  plan  is  to 
have  a  cup  emery-wheel  with  the  inside  diameter 
somewhat  smaller  than  that  which  is  required  of  the 
ball ;  and  be  sure  to  strengthen  the  wheel  either  by 
strong  Manilla  paper  bands  wider  than  the  hight  of 
the  cup,  wound  around  and  around  with  glue  between 
the  folds,  or  by  a  cast-iron  or  other  cup  in  which  it 
may  be  contained,  so  that  then  there  will  be  no 
danger  of  accidents  from  bursting  of  the  wheel  at  high 
speeds. 

Regrinding  Rolls.  The  great  and  increasing  use  of 
both  smooth  and  corrugated  chilled  cast-iron  rolls  in 
flour  milling  often  brings  up  the  question  as  to 
whether  these  rolls,  when  worn  out  of  truth,  can  be 
reground  without  re- turning  the  journals.  There  is 
no  one  answer  that  will  fit  every  case.  If  the  journals 
remain  true  the  rolls  can  be  reground  very  readily 
without  extra  care,  and  reground  either  on  centers  or 
(what  is  better  yet)  on  their  own  journals.  If  the 
journals  are  out  of  true,  they  should  be  ground — not 
turned — at  the  same  time  as  the  rolls.  The  rolls 


122  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

would  run  truly  if  ground  while  running  on  their  own 
journals,  whether  these  journals  were  true  or  not, 
because  any  fault  in  the  journals  would  be  corrected 
in  the  grinding.  But  the  chance  of  getting  two  rolls 
thus  ground,  so  set  in  the  machine  that  both  sets  of 
corrections  would  come  together  promptly,  would  be 
too  slim  for  any  one  to  take ;  hence  the  journals 
should  be  ground,  if  at  all  "out."  An  additional 
reason  for  regrinding  the  journals  is  the  increased  life 
of  the  bearings  in  which  they  run,  and  the  dimin- 
ished amount  of  power  required  to  run  them. 

Corrugated  rolls  may  be  thrown  out  of  truth,  in  re- 
corrugating,  even  after  being  ground  to  absolute  truth  ; 
this  is  usually  the  result  of  comparatively  soft  places 
in  the  surface  causing  the  tool  to  sink  in  too  deeply 
or  to  pluck  out  metal,  leaving  a  low  spot  at  the  soft 
place. 

It  would  be  well  if  makers  of  roller  mills  would  so 
belt  them  that  their  relative  velocities  would  be  prime 
to  each  other ;  that  is,  the  same  two  places  should  not 
come  together  every  few  rotations,  but  only  at  very 
long  intervals.  This  is  often  done  with  gears,  so  that 
the  same  two  teeth  do  not  strike  each  other  more  than 
in  some  hundreds  of  rotations.  The  result  is  greatly 
increased  wear ;  no  one  tooth  goes  much  more  quickly 
than  the  rest,  as  every  tooth  comes  in  contact  with 
every  other  one. 

How  to  Make  Truly  Round  Balls.  Anyone  who 
has  ever  endeavored  to  turn  balls  perfectly  round  in  a 
lathe  may  know — and  if  he  doesn't  he  should  know — 
that  there  is  no  lathe  built  which  will  turn  objects 
perfectly  spherical.  In  many  cases  after  the  lathe  has 
done  its  work  (and  this  is  true  of  heavy  lathes  with 
as  perfect  fit  and  adjustment  as  money  can  buy)  the 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  123 

bolts  will  be  found  enough  * '  out ' '  for  the  error  to  be 
perceptible  with  the  finger  and  thumb.  The  moral 
of  this  is  that  grinding  must  be  resorted  to,  to  do 
away  with  the  inequalities  of  the  lathe- work.  For 
such  work,  the  cup  emery-wheel  (and  under  emery- 
wheels  I  include  corundum- wheels  as  well)  will  be 
found  convenient  and  effective. 

In  Finishing  Leaf=Springs  by  Grinding  care  should 
be  taken  that  the  grinding-marks  run  lengthwise 
instead  of  crosswise ;  as  when  a  spring  is  hardened 
and  tempered  it  takes  very  little  inducement  in  the 
shape  of  a  crosswise  scratch  or  fine  groove,  such  as  a 
grain  of  emery  leaves,  to  cause  the  spring  to  break  off 
short  right  at  the  crack. 

The  Saw  as  a  Machine  Tool.  There  are  too  few 
large  shops  in  which  the  metal-sawing  machine  is 
used.  There  are  many  classes  of  work,  in  the  smith- 
shop,  particularly,  in  which  there  is  a  distinct  saving 
in  the  use  of  the  saw  over  the  ordinary  process  of 
nicking  and  breaking,  or  of  cutting  off  in  the  lathe- 
as,  for  instance,  where  it  is  required  to  cut  a  number  of 
pieces  to  length  ready  for  centering.  Where  the  stock 
is  flat  or  square,  there  is  even  more  saving  than  with 
round  material ;  and  there  are  cases  where  there  is  a 
piece  that  needs  its  corner  or  end  trimmed  off  or  a 
gap  cut  out,  as  in  a  crank-shaft,  in  which  the  sawing- 
machine  will  save  time  and  trouble  and  do  better 
work  than  can  be  got  by  any  other  means. 

Machine  Tool.  Many  a  man  cuts  a  piece  of  work — 
especially  brass- work — into  small  chips  by  a  regular 
cutter  or  lathe- tool,  when  he  could  cut  it  by  a  circular 
saw  in  a  milling-machine,  or  even  by  a  good  hack- 
saw, in  less  time  and  with  less  consumption  of  power. 


124  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

The  saw  can  even  be  used  for  heavy  gaining.  For 
brass- work  it  is  well  to  have  disks  which  are  thicker 
on  the  riin  than  at  the  center,  in  order  to  give  the 
necessary  clearance  with  less  weakness  than  would  be 
given  by  spreading  or  by  springing  the  teeth  of  a  disk 
of  equal  thickness  throughout.  Six  inches  is  the 
largest  saw  that  you  will  find  convenient  for  ordinary 
brass-work  ;  and  four  inches  will  come  in  more  often 
as  the  best  size  to  use  for  small  work. 

Cutting  Rails  to  Length.  Some  of  those  rails  are 
longer  than  the  others ;  and  the  reason  of  it  is  that 
while  the  gages  were  set  all  right,  some  of  them  were 
hotter  then  the  others  ;  and  the  rails  which  were  the 
hottest  when  cut,  are  the  shortest  when  cold,  having 
contracted  more  than  the  others  after  cutting.  In 
some  of  the  German  mills  they  never  have  any  such 
trouble ;  they  look  at  the  rail  through  a  dark  glass, 
from  which,  when  they  have  cooled  to  a  certain  tem- 
perature, they  cannot  be  seen  at  all.  A  dark  blue  or 
an  orange-yellow  glass  will  make  a  red-hot  rail  invis- 
ible. It  may  be  considered  a  fact  that  any  two 
rails  looked  at  through  the  same  pair  of  glasses  will 
disappear  at  the  same  temperature ;  if  every  rail  is 
allowed  to  cool  until  it  is  just  invisible  through  a 
certain  pair  of  glasses,  all  will  be  of  the  same  temper- 
ature, and  their  lengths  will  be  the  same. 

This  is  one  of  the  lessons  that  we  may  learn  from 
our  cousins  across  the  water 

For  Cutting  Small=Diameter  Steel  a  good  special 
hack-saw  is  about  as  good  as  any.  Hand  hack-saws 
are  of  course  slow,  but  they  do  the  work  ;  but  there 
are  power  hack-saws  which  will  put  into  the  shade 
any  other  device  for  the  purpose. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


125 


Cutting  off  Small  Pieces.  I  don't  know  why  it  is 
that  people  who  have  cutting-off  machines  for  bar 
iron  of  large  size  should  not,  when  they  have  a 
number  of  small  pieces  to  cut  off,  place  a  number  of 


FIG.  107.— CUTTING  OFF  SMALL  PIECES. 

them  in  a  clamp  at  once  and  cut  them  all  at  one 
operation,  as  shown  in  Figure  107,  which  represents 
this  being  done  on  one  of  the  Newton  machines. 

Hack-saw  Lubricant.  I  have  always  been  an  advo- 
cate of  black-lead  as  a  useful  thing  to  have  around ; 
and  one  use  which  is  not  often  found  for  it  is  in  the 
lubrication  of  hack-saws.  Two  parts  of  tallow  and 
one  of  graphite  will  make  a  saw  cut  faster  and  more 
sweetly. 

Punch=Bushings.  A  good  wrinkle  for  users  of 
small  punches  who  ruin  many  by  breakage  or  exces- 
sive wear,  is  the  punch-bushing,  used  in  connection 
with  a  stock  and  coupling.  The  punches  themselves 
are  made  of  Stubs  rod,  with  one  end  upset  with  a 
hammer  so  as  to  form  a  head  ;  this  is  held  in  the  bush 
and  holder  just  as  a  twist-drill  is  held. 


126  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Spiral  Punches.  The  average  punch  throws  too 
much  strain  on  the  press  by  reason  of  its  cutting 
all  the  way  around  at  once.  This  has  been  avoided 
by  the  Kennedy  punch,  which,  however,  is  rather  ex- 
pensive to  make  and  troublesome  to  keep  in  order. 
Among  about  a  hundred  other  "notions,"  which  I 
have  got  from  time  to  time  from  Prof.  J.  K.  Sweet,  is 


FIG.  1 08.—  SPIRAL  PUNCH. 

an  idea  for  a  punch  which  should  be  very  useful 
where  there  is  large  work  to  get  out.  As  shown  in 
Figure  108,  the  end  is  divided  into  semi-circular 
halves,  each  of  which  is  ground  sloping  so  as  to  give  a 
shearing  cut,  there  being  always  two  parts  in  action 
at  once,  and  these  being  always  diametrically  oppo- 
site to  each  other.  The  action  is  a  rotary  shearing 
one. 

Centering  Punch.  I  do  not  remember  where  I  got 
the  idea  of  the  centering  punch  shown  in  Figure  109  ; 
but  I  think  it  was  in  the  Delamater  Works,  from 
which  I  always  brought  away  more  ideas  than  I  left. 
F  is  a  chunky  portion  of  cheap  metal — cast  iron, 
wrought  iron,  or  steel  casting,  according  to  the  char- 
acter of  work  to  be  done — and  it  has  a  screw  collar  E 
by  which  to  clamp  to  it  centrally  and  firmly  the  punch 
proper,  Z>,  which  has  its  upper  end  enlarged  and 
beveled  as  shown  in  the  illustration.  This  portion 
is  of  the  best  tool-steel  and  its  working  edge  A  is  best 
slightly  cupped.  Down  through  its  middle  there  is  a 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


127 


bole  about  balf  its  diameter,  and  tbree-fourths  its 
length  ;  and  tbe  rest  of  its  length  it  is  bored  smaller 
to  receive  accurately  the  shank  of  a  centering-pin  A 
with  an  enlarged  head  B  that  fits  the  larger  bore. 
This  being  slipped  into  D  from  above,  there  is  next 
inserted  in  the  large  bore  a  spiral  spring  C ;  then  the 


FIG.  109. — CENTERING  PUNCH. 

collar  E  is  slipped  over  the  punch  proper,  and  this  is 
clamped  thereby  to  the  head  F.  The  spring  throws 
A  out  far  enough  to  enable  it  to  find  the  cross-mark 
or  prick-mark ;  then  as  the  punch  is  brought  down  A 
recedes  and  the  working  edge  of  D  cuts  out  the  piece. 
Why  Taps  Break.  The  reason  those  taps  break  in 
the  nicks  is  that  you  have  made  the  grooves  with 


128 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


straight  sides  and  bottoms.  Type-founders  know 
better  than  that.  The  nicks  that  they  put  in  are 
practically  semi-circular  in  side  outline,  and  their 
nicks  are  not  intended  to  do  any  work.  Yours  are  ; 
yet  you  have  made  them  of  a  shape  which  encourages 
breakage  in  the  sharp  corners. 

Collapsing  Taps  have  the  advantage  that  they  may 
be  withdrawn  without  reversing  the  work,  and 
that  they  are  not  (particularly  if  they  have  clearance) 


D    CO 


FIGS,  no  AND  in. — COLLAPSING  TAPS. 

worn  in  that  operation.  Figures  no  and  in  show 
one  used  in  vertical  machines  for  steam  fittings.  -4, 
which  is  driven  by  the  machine  spindle,  drives  B 
through  the  pin  H.  In  B  are  three  chasers,  C  fitting 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT 


129 


the  dovetail  and  taper  grooves  D,  and  which  have 
lugs  fitting  an  annular  groove  E,  worked  in  A,  so 
that  if  the  pin  H  rises  the  chaser  will  not  rise  with  it 
but  will  close  together  ;  if  the  core  B  descends  they 
will  open.  When  the  tap  is  cutting  it  is  driven  as 
shown  by  the  arrow  and  the  pin  H  is  driven  by  the 
ends  of  the  grooves ;  but  throwing  H  in  the  direction 
of  working  raises  B  in  A,  closes  the  chasers  away 
from  the  thread  just  cut,  and  permits  -easy  with- 
drawing. 

Figure  112  is  a  collapsing  tap  used  by  the  Hancock 
Inspirator  Co.     It  has  an  outer  shell  A  carrying  three 


FIG.  112. — COLLAPSING  TAP.     (HANCOCK  INSPIRATOR  Co). 

chasers  .#,  pivoted  to  A  at  (7,  having  a  small  lug  at 
E  at  one  end  and  being  coned  at  the  inner  end  D. 
The  inner  shell  F  is  reduced  along  part  of  its  length 
to  receive  the  lug  E  of  the  chasers  and  let  them  open 
out  full  at  their  cutting  end.  At  the  other  end  of  F 
is  a  washer  H  against  which  abuts  the  spiral  spring 
shown,  its  other  end  pressing  against  a  shoulder  in 
A.  The  washer  His  beveled  on  its  end  face  to  cor- 
respond with  the  bevel  on  a  notch  in  the  lever  L 
Within  the  inner  tube  ^is  the  stem  J,  into  the  end 
of  which  is  fixed  the  piece  K,  on  which  is  fixed  the 
cone  L.  The  pieces  K  and  L  are  kept  from  turning 
by  a  spline  in  K,  into  which  the  pin  M  projects. 


1 3o  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

In  the  portion  in  which  the  parts  are  here  shown,  F 
is  pushed  forward  so  that  its  coned  end  G  has  opened 
the  chaser  to  fullest  extent;  the  opening  being 
governed  by  contact  of  the  lug  E  with  the  reduced 
diameter  of  F.  In  operating  in  the  work,  when  the 
foot  N  of  K  meets  with  the  resistance  of  the  end  of 
the  hole  being  tapped,  /and  L  will  be  pushed  to  the 
right  until  the  cone  on  L  raises  the  end  of  the  lever 
7,  and  the  notch  on  /  clears  JET,  when  the  spring  will 
force  F  to  the  right,  and  the  shoulder  on  F  at  X,  will 
lift  the  end  E  of  'the  chasers,  collapsing  the  cutting 
end  within  A,  on  the  pivot  C  as  a  center  of  motion. 

Frictionless  Taps  sound  like  an  impossibility,  but  I 
have  seen  some  that  are  verily  well  entitled  to  be  so 
called.  The  thread  is  first  cut  and  the  taper  turned 
in  the  usual  way,  then  in  order  better  to  see  what  is 
going  on,  the  blank  is  heated  to  change  its  color. 
Before  being  fluted  or  grooved  the  blank  is  put  into 
the  lathe  with  the  foot-stock  set  back  the  reverse  of 
the  way  in  which  the  taper  was  turned ;  and  then 
with  a  tool  rather  more  acute  than  that  used  for  cut- 
ting the  thread,  the  bottom  of  the  thread  is  turned 
away  until  there  is  formed  a  new  angle  on  all  the 
sides  of  all  the  threads  up  to  about  J-  the  tap  diameter, 
which  is  left  in  its  original  condition  to  clear  out  and 
leave  a  finished  hole.  After  fluting  and  filing  away 
the  outer  surface  between  the  flutes,  such  a  tap  will 
have  clearance  all  along. 

In  Fluting  or  Grooving  Taps  always  back  off  the 
threads.  There  is  no  way  of  presenting  the  cutter 
which  will  result  in  giving  clearance,  such  as  can  be 
and  should  be  given  by  backing  off. 

Straightening  Taps.  Making  an  ugly  face  over 
that  tap  that  has  got  crooked  in  hardening?  Instead 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  131 

of  doing  that,  scour  it  clean  so  that  you  can  see  what 
color  it  has  when  heated,  bring  it  nearly  if  not  quite 
up  to  the  temperature  at  which  its  temper  was  drawn, 
and  then  you  can  straighten  it  without  much  trouble. 

Pipe=Dies  made  of  a  malleable-iron  frame  in  which 
the  cutters  are  held  by  screws  from  the  back  and  ad- 
justed by  thicknesses  of  paper  will  be  found  conven- 
ient for  average  repair  work.  The  frames  bearing 
the  dies  can  be  used  in  any  die-stock  of  the  proper 
size. 

Cutting  Pipe=Threads  in  a  Lathe.  When  you  have 
pipe- threads  to  cut  in  any  quantity,  and  have  no  reg- 
ular pipe- threading  machine,  just  take  off  the  tail- 
stock  of  a  lathe,  put  your  dies  in  the  chuck,  rig  up 
a  steady-rest  on  the  carriage,  that  will  grip  the  pipe 
enough  to  keep  it  from  turning,  and  sail  in  ;  using 
slow  speed  and  plenty  of  oil. 

Three  vs.  Four  Dies  for  Screw=Th reading.  There 
was  a  time  when  machinists  were  somewhat  divided 
in  opinion  about  the  relative  merits  of  dies  in  sets  of 
three  and  those  in  sets  of  four,  for  pipe- threading. 
But  it  seems  to  me  that  the  question  is  now  about 
settled  in  the  minds  of  most,  that  three  dies  should  do 
better  work,  and  actually  do  better  work  than  four,  un- 
der the  same  conditions — unless  the  stock  is  very  thin 
and  very  little  pressure  is  put  on.  On  the  same  prin- 
ciple that  it  is  best  to  have  a  large  number  of  flutes  in 
taps  and  reamers,  it  is  best  to  have  a  large  number  in  a 
screw- threading  implement.  We  will  suppose  that 
one  die  gets  dull  or  broken  in  a  set  of  four ;  that 
throws  double  work  on  the  one  opposite  it  and  there 
is  double  the  chance  of  dulling,  breaking  or  bad 
work ;  and  the  same  applies  all  around  to  meet  any 
case  of  defective  work  from  one  cutter. 


132 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


Monkey- Wrenches  and  Pipe-Tongs.  There  seems 
to  be  considerable  controversy  about  the  inventor  of 
the  monkey-wrench.  Some  say  that  his  name  was 
Charles,  and  others  that  it  was  Thomas  ;  all  agree 
that  he  was  a  benefactor  to  the  race  of  mechanics — 
but  the  English  call  the  thing  itself  an  * '  adjustable 
spanner  "  and  cheat  him  (Charles  or  Thomas,  it  is  all 
one  at  this  date)  out  of  the  credit  which  is  due  him. 

But  what  I  want  to  know  is,  who  invented  pipe- 
tongs  ?  I  want  to  find  out  where  he  is  boarding,  and 
then  I  want  to  go  and  stamp  on  him,  and  give  him 
my  opinion  of  him.  Why  is  it  that  their  jaws  are  all 
out  of  true,  even  when  they  are  new ;  that  their 
handles  spring ;  that  they  only  fit  about  one  size  of  pipe 
with  any  degree  of  decency,  and  are  not  satisfactory 
even  then  ?  Why  did  not  the  pipe-tong  man  finish 
the  invention  and  give  us  tongs  that  would  grip,  or 
else  let  them  alone  ? 

For  my  part,  there  is  only  one  thing  which  I  hate 
worse  than  a  pair  of  three-fourths  inch  pipe- tongs, 
and  that  is  a  pair  of  inch-and- three-quarter. 

In  Pipe-Fitting  the  monkey-wrench  may  be  used 
as  a  substitute  for  the  ordinary  and  usually  good-for 


FIG.  113. — THE  MONKEY-WRENCH  AS  A  PIPE-WRENCH. 

nothing  pipe- tongs,  in  a  very  simple  manner.     Bring 
the  jaws  of  the  wrench  to  the  size  of  the  pipe,  then 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


133 


put  a  short  piece  of  an  old  round  file  (see  ^4,  Figure 
113)  between  the  piece  to  be  unscrewed,  shown  at  B, 
and  the  lower  jaw  0,  of  the  wrench.  The  piece  of 
file  will  roll  between  the  pipe  or  nipple  and  the  jaw, 
and  will  so  greatly  increase  the  grip  as  to  enable  good 
pipe-fitting  to  be  done. 

Lead-Pipe  Joints.  A  rather  neat  way  of  making 
lead- pipe  joints  came  to  my  eye  the  other  day.  There 
was  a  female  die  made  of  conical  shape,  and  this  was 
forced  over  the  end  of  each  pipe  and  hammered  so  as 
to  make  a  cone  on  each  of  the  two  ends  that  would 
be  joined  together.  Next  they  were  inserted  one 
after  the  other  in  a  double-taper  collar  which  was 


FIG.  114.— MAKING  LEAD-PIPE  JOINTS, 

threaded  inside,  and  were  then  expanded  by  a  man- 
drel until  they  took  the  form  of  the  threads  and  were 
left  with  cylindrical  bore  of  the  original  size  of  the 
pipe.  There  is  no  question  about  the  perfection  of 
the  fit  between  metal  and  metal  in  such  a  job  as  that. 
The  only  objection  to  this  method  is  that  only  short 
lengths  can  be  added  at  a  time;  this  being  governed 
by  the  length  of  the  mandrel. 

Globe- Valves  in  Pipe- Lines.  Sufficient  pains  are 
not  taken  in  putting  up  pipe-lines  to  have  the  globe- 
valves  with  their  stems  horizontal,  to  prevent  water 
pockets  ;  and  angle- valves  are  not  so  much  used  as 
they  should  be. 


i34  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Bending  Copper  Pipes  as  ordinarily  effected,  by 
plugging  np  one  end,  filling  that  with  melted  rosin, 
and  then  after  bending  melting  out  the  rosin  again, 
is  troublesome  and  expensive.  The  substitution  of 
sand  for  rosin  is  sometimes  practiced  as  an  improve- 
ment on  the  rosin,  as  regards  the  time  that  it  takes. 
There  is  a  much  better  way,  which  leaves  the  pipes 
much  more  truly  circular  in  cross-section  at  the  bends. 
It  consists  of  taking  a  spiral  of  wire,  preferably  of 
square  section,  of  a  diameter  very  slightly  greater 
than  the  bore  of  the  pipe  to  be  bent.  One  end  being- 
supplied  with  a  squared  piece  to  permit  of  the  appli- 
cation of  an  ordinary  carpenter's  brace,  the  spring  is 
inserted  in  the  pipe  completely,  by  turning  the  brace 
in  the  direction  of  the  spiral  so  as  to  slightly  diminish 
the  diameter  of  the  spiral;  then  the  turning  being 
discontinued,  the  spiral  springs  to  its  full  diameter. 
The  pipe  may  then  be  bent  as  though  it  was  a  lead 
rod ;  and  then  turning  the  brace  in  the  reverse  way 
the  spiral  may  be  withdrawn  from  the  tube.  Curves 
of  any  degree  of  complication  may  thus  be  made  with- 
out any  flattening  at  the  bends ;  the  only  limit  of 
sharpness  of  curvature  being  that  imposed  by  the 
quality  of  the  metal,  which,  of  course,  will  "flow" 
only  to  the  extent  permitted  by  its  quality.  Curves 
in  all  three  planes  may  be  made. 

Electric  Drills  in  Boiler  Work.  The  old-fashioned 
way  of  ratcheting  holes  in  fire-box  sheets  is  slow,  and 
in  these  days  of  high-priced  labor,  costly.  A  good 
workman  can  do  with  the  electric  drill  as  much 
work  in  eight  hours  as  by  hand  in  ten,  and  make 
better  holes.  Nowadays,  he  wheels  up  alongside  of 
the  boiler  a  little  truck,  bearing  an  electric  motor, 
which  drives  a  nest  of  bevel  gears,  from  which  projects 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


135 


a  shaft  having  practically  universal  motion.  If  it  is 
a  locomotive  boiler  he  engages  two  hooks  which  are 
attached  to  the  drilling- truck  or  motor- truck,  to  the 
engine-frames,  fits  his  drill  in  the  socket,  turns  on 
the  current,  and  is  ready  for  work.  Within  consider- 
able range  the  motor-truck  permits  of  drilling  several 
holes  without  moving  it  parallel  to  the  boiler ;  but  it 
is  literally  but  the  work  of  a  moment  to  unclamp, 
move  it  along  three  or  four  feet,  and  begin  again.  In 
the  Baldwin  Works,  where  most  of  the  work  is  done 
electrically  and  preparations  are  made  to  do  more, 
one  man  drills  as  many  holes  in  eight  hours  with  the 
electrical  drill  as  in  ten  by  hand,  and  makes  better 
holes. 

Reaming  Holes  in  Plate  Work,  such  as  boilers, 
bridges,  etc.,  may  be  very  much  better  done  by  a 
screw  reamer  such  as  is  shown  in  Figure  115  than  by 
the  ordinary  half-round  device.  It  is  quite  well 
adapted  to  use  with  the  flexible  shaft. 


FIG.  115.— SCREW  REAMER  FOR  PLATE- WORK. 

Another  reamer  for  boiler  work  is  shown  in  Figure 
116,  being  a  variation  on  the  one  just  described 


It 


FIG.  116. — SCREW  REAMER  FOR  BOILER  WORKS. 

has  straight  flutes,   and  spiral  grooves  to  break  up 
the  chips  and  help  the  feed. 


136  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Compressed  Air  for  Tapping  and  Reaming  in  Boiler- 
Shops.  About  as  rapid  work  as  one  wants  to  see  is 
that  done  in  the  way  of  reaming  and  tapping  stay- 
bolt  holes  in  fire-boxes  in  the  Baldwin  Works. 
There  is  a  main  running  full  length  of  the  boiler- 
shop,  on  each  side,  delivering  air  at  80  pounds  press- 
ure. This  has  numerous  points  of  attachment  for 
hose,  with  small  motors  bearing  reamers  and  taps  on 
their  outer  ends.  The  workman  controls  the  action 
of  the  motor  with  a  cock  right  at  his  hand,  and  reams 
and  taps  steel  sheets  as  though  he  were  boring  holes 
in  wood.  One  man  can  ream  150  holes  |  inch  in 
diameter  in  steel  sheets  f  inch  in  thickness,  per  hour, 
and  can  tap  40  of  the  same  diameter  in  the  same 
time  in  the  same  sheet.  By  hand,  he  would  ream 
only  50  and  tap  only  20. 

Flanging  Boiler=Heads,  and  similar  work,  requires 
a  very  skilled  workman,  and  more  judgment  than 
draftsmen  usually  give  in  making  the  drawings  there- 
fore. While  the  excellence  of  flange-iron  is  proverb- 
ial, too  much  should  not  be  expected  of  it,  and  it  is 
not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  with  a  three-inch 
radius  a  fire-box  or  boiler-head  will  have  the  metal  as 
little  crippled  as  with  a  five  or  a  six.  Of  course  when 
even  the  best  of  metal  is  bent  over  a  short  radius,  the 
material  on  the  inside  of  the  curve  is  wrinkled  (it 
must  go  somewhere)  and  that  on  the  outside  is 
stretched  and  perhaps  strained. 

A  Good  Riveted  Joint.  In  these  days  of  high  steam- 
pressures  it  is  necessary  to  have  riveted  joints  that 
shall  not  merely  hold  the  plates  together  but  prevent 
leakage  j  and  for  bridge-structure  it  is  also  necessary 
that  the  hole  be  well  filled  so  as  to  prevent  the  infil- 
tration of  water  and  consequent  rusting ;  also  to  do 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


137 


away  with  lost  motion.  The  late  Major  E.  B.  Meat- 
yard  (whom  to  know  well  was  a  liberal  education) 
devised  shortly  before  his  death  the  form  shown  in 
section  in  Figure  117.  There  are  three  plates,  the 
middle  one  of  which  has  a  hole  with  parallel  sides,  as 
by  drilling,  and  the  others  having  conical  outlines,  as 
is  usually  the  case  (although  not  in  such  a  marked 


FIG.  117. — RIVETED  JOINT.     (MEATYARD). 

degree  as  here  shown)  where  punching  is  resorted  to. 
The  rivet  is  formed  with  its  ' '  first  head ' '  conical  and 
slightly  convex,  and  its  shank  cylindrical ;  once  in 
place  it  is  expanded  by  a  pin-shaped  tool  (preferably 
hydraulically)  so  that  it  fills  the  holes  completely,  and 
yet  gives  a  flush  joint  suitable  for  ship  work. 

BoiIer=Calking  Tools.  I  show  here-  three  styles  of 
boiler-calking  tools,  marked  in  the  illustration  num- 
bers i,  2  and  3,  respectively.  The  first  one  has 
a  square  end ;  the  second  round  ;  the  third  round  also, 
but  with  a  step  on  each  side,  that  is,  there  is  a  fillet 
on  its  end.  The  first  scores  and  weakens  the  plate  ; 
the  second  compresses  the  metal  without  scoring  it, 
and  the  third  does  the  same  thing  only  rather  better. 


138  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

The  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works  have  for  many  years 


FIG.  118. — BOILER-CALKING  TOOLS. 

used  the  second  style  with  the  best  results  as  regards 
the  tightness  and  strength  of  seams. 

Center=Cutting  Shears.       Shears    for     cutting    off 
stock  operate  by  leverage  ;  but  they  are  usually  made 


FIG.  119. — CENTER-CUTTING  SHEARS. 

so  that  the  leverage  is  decreased  by  reason  of  the  im- 
possibility of  getting  the  stock  near  to  the  center — 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  139 

where  of  course  the  pivot  is  found.  In  order  to  get 
a  chance  to  cut  nearer  the  center,  and  thus  increase 
the  leverage  to  the  maximum  possible  (which  would 
be  infinite  in  the  case  of  stock  of  no  diameter) ,  the 
movable  jaw  may  be  given  a  circular  sliding  motion 
about  an  imaginary  center,  as  shown  in  Figure  119, 
where  the  stock  may  be  brought  absolutely  to  the 
center,  if  desired. 

True  Surface-Plates.  Every  one  who  has  ever 
made  or  used  a  surface-plate  of  the  usual  kind  knows 
that  more  of  the  '  *  innate  cussedness  of  inanimate 
matter"  resides  in,  on  or  around  it  than  in,  on  or 
around  any  other  equal  size  and  weight  of  material. 
It  is  the  embodiment  of  fickle  obstinacy,  or  obstinate 
fickleness.  It  is  u  all  things  to  all  men, ' '  and  various 
things  to  one  man,  according  to  the  temperature,  and 
(some  think)  according  to  the  time  of  day  and  the 
phase  of  the  moon.  It  must  be  coddled  like  a  new- 
born babe,  and  humored  like  a  great  grandsire  of  four- 
score and  ever-so-many  years.  The  opening  of  a 
door,  the  removal  to  a  bench  on  which  the  sun  has 
been  shining — any  one  of  a  dozen  things  will  make 
this  supposed  ' 4  standard ' '  prevaricate  like  the  father 
of  lies ;  and  the  worst  of  it  is  that  the  falsehood  is  in- 
consistent and  ever  changing. 

Of  what  use,  then,  making  these  things  three  at  a 
time  so  as  to  insure  absolute  truth,  if  each  one  is  to 
be  true  only  when  there  are  two  others  with  which 
to  compare  it?  Of  what  avail  is  the  perfection  of 
squareness  and  flatness,  the  utmost  refinement  of 
finish,  if  the  thing  can't  be  used  save  under  a  felt 
wrapper  and  in  a  chamber  with  fixed  and  invariable 
temperature  ? 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  tool  or  an  appliance 


i4o  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

being  too  nearly  perfect — being  like  some  men  whom 
we  run  across  sometimes,  entirely  too  good  for  this 
world,  and  yet  not  quite  good  enough  for  the  next. 

But,  granting  all  this,  say  you,  most  intelligent 
and  eminently  practical  reader — granting  that  the 
surface-plate,  as  we  have  it,  and  as  Pitt,  Planer  &  Co. , 
have  it,  and  as  all  the  members  of  the  noble  army  of 
martyrs  to  mechanical  imperfections  have  it,  is  as 
it  is, — most  worthy  fellow-sufferers,  what,  in  the 
language  of  the  late  unlamented  Boss  Tweed,  are 
you  going  to  do  about  it? 

As  for  myself,  only  to  show  you  what  some  one  else 
has  done  about  it.  If,  after  hearing  of  your  former 
fellow-sufferers'  revolt  from  the  persecution  of  a 
whimsical,  inanimate  tyrant,  you  feel  like  throwing 
your  ancient  and  dishonorable  surface-plate  at  the 
traditional  cat  and  making  yourself  one  which  can  be 
guaranteed  to  be  like  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians,  unchangeable,  I  shall  deem  myself  to  have 
been  of  use  in  the  world. 

The  credit  is  due  to  Bement,  Miles  &  Co.,  of  the 
Industrial  Works,  Philadelphia. 

The  trouble  with  the  old  style  of  surface-plate,  no 
matter  how  carefully  ribbed  and  stiffened  on  the  back, 
to  prevent  its  being  sprung  in  lifting  or  in  case  it  was 
not  set  squarely  on  a  support,  was  that  its  two  faces 
were  not  alike.  One  was  a  flat  surface,  planed,  filed 
and  scraped  true  ;  the  other  a  ribbed  and  cross-ribbed 
field.  The  conditions  of  tension  in  these  two  faces 
were  not  and  could  not  be  the  same.  Heat  could  not 
act  on  both  sides  alike,  even  if  they  were  exposed  to 
the  same  conditions,  which  was  not  at  all  likely — in 
fact  was  hardly  possible.  The  result  was  as  stated, 
that  the  plate  required  special  care  to  preserve  it  at  a 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  141 

uniform  temperature  in  the  tool-room,  and  when 
taken  out  for  use  assumed  all  sorts  of  shapes,  being 
alternately  convex,  flat  and  concave,  according  to  the 
time  that  it  had  been  out  of  its  case ;  and  according, 
also,  to  other  conditions  and  circumstances. 

Now  for  the  remedy.  This,  of  course,  must  involve 
a  knowledge  of  the  cause.  The  cause  of  trouble  being 
principally  non-similarity  of  the  two  sides,  the  remedy 
was  to  make  both  sides  exactly  alike  as  regards  ten- 
sion and  general  condition.  Accordingly  there  was 
cast  a  hollow  box  with  all  cross-sections  rectangular, 
and  having  a  core  also  rectangular  in  every  cross- 
section,  and  parallel  with  the  external  faces  of  the 
box ;  the  opposite  sides,  edges  and  ends,  having  equal 
thickness.  This  being  held  in  the  planer  by  supports 
reaching  into  the  core-space,  was  planed  all  over, 
faces,  edges  and  ends,  equal  cuts  being  taken  off  op- 
posite faces  so  as  to  keep  the  opposite  strains  equal. 
One  side,  one  edge  and  one  end  were  then  filed  and 
scraped  dead  flat,  and  not  only  dead  flat  and  true,  but 
at  right  angles  to  each  other,  so  that  the  corner  where 
these  three  true  faces  met  formed  a  triedral  angle  (that 
is,  the  angle  at  the  corner  of  a  triangular  pyramid)  of 
ninety  degrees  in  every  reckoning.  The  appliance  as 
thus  finished  constituted  a  surface-plate  with  maxi- 
mum stiffness,  that  would  be  affected  to  a  minimum 
amount  by  such  changes  of  temperature  as  are  impos- 
sible to  avoid,  and  which  plate  could  also  be  used  for 
truing  up  steel  squares,  draftsmen's  T-squares,  and 
other  tools  requiring  absolute  straightness  and  perpen- 
dicularity. 

Care  of  Surf  ace- Plates.  Attention  should  be  called 
to  the  habit  that  some  careless  workmen  have  of  put- 
ting surface-plates  while  in  use,  where  they  will  get 


i42  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

warmed  up  on  one  side,  or  on  one  not  more  than  the 
other,  so  that  they  will  be  sprung  by  the  heat  of  the 
sun  or  of  the  steam  pipes.  The  more  accurate  a 
surface- plate  is,  the  more  care  should  be  taken  to  keep 
it  at  uniform  temperature  all  over,  and  as  far  as  possi- 
ble to  have  that  temperature  the  same  as  that  of  the 
material  which  is  compared  with  it.  If  a  surface- 
plate  which  has  been  lying  in  the  sun  and  attained  a 
temperature  of  ninety  degrees,  is  laid  on  a  printing- 
press  bed,  which  by  reason  of  being  in  a  dark  part  of 
the  shop  in  a  draft  has  a  temperature  of  only 
seventy  degrees  or  perhaps  sixty  degrees,  the  slab  will 
cool  the  working- face  of  the  surface-plate  and  spring 
it  out  of  true  plane,  despite  its  thickness  or  its  ribs  ; 
in  fact  sometimes  the  thicker  it  is  the  more  readily  it 
may  be  sprung. 

If  the  surface-plate  has  an  even  temperature  of 
ninety  degrees  all  over,  it  will  remain  true  unless  laid 
on  something  hotter  or  colder ;  if  it  has  laid  in  the 
sun  face  up,  its  face  will  get  convex ;  if  it  has  laid 
back  up,  it  will  get  concave  on  the  face.  As  most 
surface-plates  are  longer  than  they  are  wide  and  tend 
to  spring  into  a  cylindrical  rather  than  a  spherical 
surface,  the  effect  of  curling  by  reason  of  unequal 
heating  may  be  discovered  and  to  some  extent  neutral- 
ized in  work  by  using  them  in  two  directions ;  once 
with  their  length  parallel  with  that  of  the  piece  being 
tested,  and  again  with  their  length  at  right  angles 
thereto. 

Fine  Adjustment  for  Surface-Gage.  If  you  want  a 
surface-gage  that  will  be  simple,  stiff,  and  convenient, 
and  yet  have  fine  adjustment,  there  was  one  shown 
some  time  ago  in  the  American  Machinist  which 
should  serve  your  purpose.  The  whole  trick  lies  in 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


143 


the  scriber  and  in  the  washers  that  hold  it.  The 
washers  are  cut  out  square  from  sheet  steel  and 
soldered  together,  the  hole  for  the  scriber  drilled  and 
finished  with  a  rose  reamer  of  the  same  size  as  the 
scriber  itself.  Then  the  center-hole  is  made  in  the 
washers  and  they  are  turned  up  round,  polished 
and  then  unsoldered.  When  the  solder  is  cleaned 
off,  the  washers  will  bring  up  solid  on  their  inside 


FIG.  120. — ADJUSTABLE  SURFACE-GAGE. 

faces  at  the  same  time  that  they  clamp  the  scriber. 
While  they  clamp  tight  enough  to  prevent  the  scriber 
from  moving  endwise  through,  or  the  washers  being 
turned  on  the  stud  ^4,  the  scriber  can  be  twisted  in  its 
bearing  by  grasping  its  hooked  end,  which  gives  some 
leverage.  If  the  scriber  is  given  a  very  slight  bend 
about  one-quarter  of  the  way  from  the  point,  turning 
the  hook  will  cause  the  point  to  describe  a  circle. 

To  flake  a  Good  Bar  Caliper,  provide  a  bar  of  steel 
one-half  inch  in  diameter  and  two  feet  long,  and  a 
brass  tube  that  will  just  slide  over  it,  of  the  same 
length.  One-half  inch  from  one  end  of  the  bar,  drill 
a  one-quarter  inch  hole  at  right  angles  to  its  length ; 
and  in  its  end  drill  in  to  meet  this  cross-hole,  a  hole 
of  suitable  size  to  tap  off  a  three-sixteenths  inch  milled- 
head  set-screw.  On  one  end  of  the  tube  insert  a 


144  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

wrought- iron  collar  about  three-sixteenth  inches  thick 
and  three-quarters  inch  wide,  and  tap  this  in  its 
center,  for  another  three-sixteenths  inch  milled-head 
set-screw.  In  the  other  end  of  the  tube  sweat  a  plug 
about  three-quarter-inch  long ;  in  this,  parallel  with 
the  hole  in  the  collar,  drill  a  one-quarter  inch  hole, 
and  along  the  axis  of  the  plug  drill  a  tap  for  another 
three-sixteenths  inch  milled-head  set-screw.  Provide 
three  milled-head  set-screws  with  cupped  ends,  one 
one-quarter  inch  round  hard  steel  rod  eight  inches 
long  with  a  sharp  point  on  one  end,  and  another  one- 
quarter  inch  hard  steel  rod  eighteen  inches  long,  with 
one  end  turned  up  at  right  angles  for  two  inches,  and 
both  ends  ground  to  a  fine  point,  and  the  apparatus 
is  ready  to  put  together  and  use. 

This  will  serve  admirably  as  a  bar  caliper  or  as  a 
tram.  Additional  stiffness  may  be  given  if  desired — 
although  there  is  very  little  work  where  it  will  be 
necessary — by  having  a  second  three-quarter  inch 
wide  wrought-iron  collar  sweated  on  the  tube  about 
six  inches  from  the  first  one  and  similarly  tapped  and 
supplied  with  a  set-screw. 

Beam  Calipers.  It  sometimes  happens  that  a  pair 
of  beam  calipers  would  come  in  handy.  The  arrange- 
ment here  shown  serves  both  for  inside  and  for  out- 
side work.  As  shown  in  Figure  121  it  has  fora  beam 
two  one-half-inch  round  steel  rods  (these  are  best  oi 
different  lengths  so  that  one  may  be  used  up  to  a 
certain  diameter,  the  other  up  to  a  certain  large  diam- 
eter, and  both  together,  fastened  by  the  coupling 
shown  in  the  sketch,  for  a  diameter  greater  than  the 
largest  that  one  alone  can  span) .  There  are  made  three 
one-inch  steel  sleeves,  one  two  inches  long,  the  others 
each  one  inch  long.  The  short  ones  are  fitted  with 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  145 

one  set-screw  each,  and  the  long  one  with  two,  in  line. 
These  screws  should  have  milled-heads,  and  cupped 
ends.  The  legs  are  of  approximately  T  outline,  and 
are  both  filed  out  at  the  same  time  from  flat  steel  one- 
eighth  inch  thick.  They  are  mortised  into  the  short 
sleeves,  by  making  on  the  end  of  each  two  round 
tenons  one-eighth  inch  in  diameter  with  a  tight  fit 
into  one-eighth  inch  holes,  the  same  distance  apart 


FIG.  121. — BEAM  CALIPERS. 


in  the  sleeves.  The  beams  may  be  graduated  in 
inches  and  fractions ;  and  if  the  legs  are  properly 
centered  with  regard  to  the  sleeves,  and  there  is  just 
an  inch  between  the  inside  and  the  outside  points  of 
each  leg,  the  readings  corresponding  to  the  inside  or 
outside  ends  of  the  sleeves  will  correspond  to  the 
distances  apart  of  the  inside  and  outside  of  the  legs, 
respectively. 

Bettering  Calipers.  The  question — stiff  joints  vs. 
spring  calipers  comes  up  as  often  as  any  in  shop  talk. 
An  improvement  on  stiff-joint  calipers  is  one  to  which 
my  attention  has  been  called  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Payler, 


146  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

who  took  a  pair  of  1 5-inch  stiff-joint  calipers,  the 
point  of  one  leg  of  which  he  enlarged  and  then  tapped 
for  a  small  screw  to  meet  the  other  point,  so  that 
when  opened  to  measure  any  object  they  can  be  set 
by  the  joint  to  one-eighth  or  one-quarter  inch  larger 
and  adjusted  by  the  screw  to  touch  (just  where  the 
touch  can  be  most  accurately  felt)  at  the  very  point 
of  contact  with  the  object.  The  same  thing  is  used 
in  the  famous  Bollinckx  shops  in  Brussels  : — which, 
by  the  way,  are  largely  equipped  with  American  ma- 
chine-tools. 

Compressing  Call  per- Joint.  Most  calipers  have  a 
tendency  to  spring  open  when  used  outside,  or  to 
close  when  used  inside.  A  device  which  they  have 
in  the  Standard  Tool  Go's,  shops  is  intended  to  do 
away  with  this  trouble.  It  has  legs  of  unusual  width ; 
this  being  at  the  rivet  end  about  one-tenth  the  length, 
and  running  on  a  true  taper.  This  width  admits  of 
a  large  rivet ;  and  in  place  of  the  usual  rivet  and 
washer  (which  would  soon  wear  and  become  loose) , 
they  use  a  hollow  rivet  or  a  tube.  One  leg  in  each 
pair  has  a  hole  drilled  at  a  point  about  one-quarter 
the  whole  length  from  the  rivet  end ;  then  the  leg  is 
sawed  from  the  rivet-hole  to  the  one  drilled.  The 
tube  is  cut  through  one  side  and  spring- tempered ; 
the  holes  in  the  legs  being  just  enough  smaller  to 
close  the  tube  and  to  open  the  slot  in  the  sawed  leg. 
This,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  makes  a  double  spring;  the 
rivet  opening,  and  the  hole  in  the  leg  closing,  as  the 
joint  wears  in  use,  so  compensating  for  the  usual 
wear  in  use.  The  joint  can  be  made  as  fine  or  as 
loose  as  desired.  The  tube  being  hardened  should 
insure  the  joint  lasting  for  years  without  being  bat- 
tered with  a  hammer  as  is  customary  with  firm-joint 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  147 

calipers.     The  width  of  the  stock  in  the  legs  is  such 
that  the  tool  makes  or  approaches  a  snap  gage. 

A  Thousandth  of  an  Inch  is  a  good  deal  in  a  fit,  as 
you  may  test  for  yourself  by  taking  a  Pratt  &  Whit- 
ney one-half  inch  plug-and-collar  gage,  sticking  the 
plug  one-eighth  inch  into  the  collar  and  moving  the 
outer  end  back  and  forth  as  though  to  try  the  fit. 
The  outer  end  will  move  about  three-sixteenths  of  an 
inch.  Many  men  work  much  closer  than  this  with- 
out thinking  that  they  come  within  gunshot  of  it. 

The  fletric  System  has  been  retarded  in  its  adop- 
tion by  English-speaking  people,  very  largely  by  the 
excess  of  zeal  of  its  advocates,  who  have  been  so 
proud  of  the  elegant  regularity  of  the  graduations  in 
every  table  that  they  publish  every  one  of  the  dimen- 
sions, although  many  of  them  are  never  used  from 
one  year's  end  to  the  other,  any  more  than  the 
4  *  mill ' '  and  ' '  eagle  ' '  are  used  in  our  every-day  buy- 
ing and  selling.  Any  oae  who  has  ever  used  the 
metric  system  and  then  had  to  come  back  to  our 
abominable  divisions  and  sub-divisions,  and  to  units 
of  weight  that  have  no  relation  to  those  of  measure, 
will  deprecate  any  attempt  to  retard  the  inarch  of 
progress  by  holding  on  to  our  antiquated  units.  We 
laugh  at  the  Russians  and  the  Peruvians  and  the 
Saxons  for  holding  on  to  the  Reaumur  thermometer ; 
but  what  we  are  doing  is  ten  times  worse. 

Pleasuring  Sere w-Th reads.  Where  there  are  many 
screw-threads  to  be  measured  it  will  be  found  well  to 
have  a  gage  that  will  measure  both  the  thread-angles 
and  their  pitch.  As  shown  in  the  illustration, 
Figure  122,  there  is  a  sheet-metal  gage  G,  having  at 
a  and  b  teeth  to  fit  the  threads.  If  the  edge  of  the 


148  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

gage  meets  the  tops  of  the  threads,  then  their  depth 
is  right.  Where  it  is  desired  to  test  only  the  pitch, 
it  may  be  made  as  shown  at  Gr,  where  its  edge  clears 


FIG.  122. — SCREW-HEAD  GAGES. 

the  thread- tops,  so  that  it  may  be  tried  at  several 
points  along  the  thread-length.  Hardened  threads 
need  this  sort  of  a  test. 

Gages  for  Screw-Th reads  may  be  made  of  saw- 
blades,  and  have  one  side  given  a  pitch  to  suit  that 
of  the  screw.  The  edges  should  be  hardened. 

Broaching.  Before  starting  to  make  mills  for  a  job 
it  may  sometimes  be  worth  your  while  to  see  if  the 
work  can't  be  done  by  broaching.  It  is  not  usually 
considered  as  the  best  kind  of  machine  work,  yet 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  it  done  in  gun-making;  and 
while  the  finish  is  not  so  good  as  by  milling,  there  are 
many  jobs  which  do  not  call  for  a  mill  finish  and 
which,  even  if  they  did,  could  be  finished  well  by 
other  means.  Those  who  do  good  work  of  this  kind 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


149 


find  that  it  is  better  to  use  parallel  than  diagonal  lines 
of  teeth  ;  and  say  that  the  work  is  more  readily  done 
on  hard  than  on  soft  stock. 

For  Enlarging  Square  Holes  in  Cast  Iron,  the  old- 
fashioned  broach  is  about  as  good  as  anything.  The 
stock  should  be  planed  square  and  to  size  in  a  shaper, 
then  planed  tapering  at  both  ends  ;  then  the  shaper- 
vise  swiveled  so  that  the  teeth  will  be  planed  diag- 
onally in  order  to  give  a  shearing  cut.  For  this  work 
a  grooving  tool  one-eight  inch  wide  answers,  its  cut- 


FIG.  123  —  BROACH  FOR  CAST  IRON. 

ting  edge  being  ground  at  a  slight  angle  so  as  to  back 
off  the  broach-  teeth.  Thus  the  broach  may  be  filed 
and  hardened.  Of  course,  it  does  not  keep  its  size 
forever,  but  where  there  are  not  too  many  holes  to  be 
made  it  will  save  time  and  files.  (Figure  123.) 

Hilling  Out  Keys.     About  as  cheap  a  way  of  mak- 
ing keys  in  quantity  or  even  when  only  a  few  are 


FIG.  124.— MILLING  OUT  KEYS. 
needed,  is  to  mill  them  out  of  a  slab,  by  a  cutter  which 


i5o  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

is  practically  a  thick  saw.  This  insures  that  the 
sides  which  are  at  an  angle  to  each  other  and  which 
do  the  work,  and  hence  require  to  be  true  and  well 
finished,  have  a  perfect  surface  and  a  regular  taper — 
the  latter  being  of  whatever  angle  is  chosen,  and 
readily  determined  by  the  graduated  table  of  the  ma- 
chine. From  one  slab,  either  planed  off  or  milled  011 
the  two  parallel  sides,  there  may  be  milled  a  number 
of  keys,  u  head  and  tail,"  the  entire  stock  being  used 
up  if  the  width  is  rightly  chosen.  The  illustration 
shows  such  a  key  partly  milled  out  of  the  plate  or 
slab. 

Projecting  Keys.  When  a  key  seems  to  be  too 
long,  as  in  a  crank-pin  brass,  don't  cut  it  off.  Things 
don't  wear  longer  than  they  were  at  first.  The  brass 
has  worn  too  narrow  or  thin.  Put  some  packing  back 
of  it,  and  you  will  find  that  the  key  has  the  right 
length  again,  And,  by  the  way,  drive  your  keys  with 
a  copper  hammer  or  a  raw-hide  mallet;  or,  if  you  have 
neither  of  these  handy,  strike  it  through  a  block  of 
hard  wood.  Never  touch  it  with  an  iron  or  steel 
hammer. 

«•  Tapering  Straight- Edges."  When  a  green  hand 
starts  to  learn  the  hardware  business  he  generally  gets 
sent  the  first  day  to  find  a  ' '  left-handed  screw-driver  ' ' 
or  a  "  crooked  straight-edge."  A  tapering  straight- 
edge sounds  nearly  as  funny,  but  why  should  it  not 
be  useful  about  a  work-bench,  especially  in  laying  out 
keys,  etc.  ? 

Split  Keys.  Be  careful  about  trusting  too  much  to 
split  keys.  They  are  usually  made  of  poor  stuff,  and 
the  short  bend  which  is  given  them  offers  every  facil- 
ity for  their  breaking.  They  generally  manage  to 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  151 

break  just  at  a  time  when  such  breakage  can  result 
in  the  most  damage.  Lock-nuts,  or  nuts  which  are 
pinned  on,  are  much  better  for  securing  pins,  etc. 

Key-Tapers  and  Sizes.  Have  as  few  sizes  and 
tapers  of  keys  about  your  shop  as  you  can  get  along 
with ;  you  will  save  money  in  their  manufacture  and 
much  more  in  their  fitting. 

Removing  Keys.  Now  that  you  have  one  of  the 
ordinary  keys  running  lengthwise  of  the  shaft,  and 
which  gives  you  trouble  in  getting  it  out,  you  may 
as  well  have  some  way  of  getting  it  out  when  you 
want  to  take  off  the  wheel.  You  can  get  this  by 
having  an  offset  on  the  outer  end  of  the  key ; 
threading  this  offset  parallel  with  the  shaft,  and 
having  a  nut  which  you  can  screw  on  the  threaded 
end  until  it  jams  on  the  end  of  the  shaft, 
after  which  turning  on  the  nut  will  gradually  draw 
the  key. 

Pinning  Cranks  on  Shafts.  In  pinning  the  crank- 
hub  on  that  shaft  by  a  pin  passing  through  a  diam- 
eter of  the  hub,  you  are  not  taking  advantage  of  the 
full  strength  that  you  could  get  out  of  the  same  pin. 
Suppose  that  instead  of  the  pin  passing  through  a 
diameter,  as  you  have  it,  it  were  to  go  through  the 
shaft  at  a  point  very  near  its  circumference,  forming 
a  chord  instead  of  a  diameter.  In  that  case  it  would 
present  more  material  to  be  sheared  off  than  where  it 
runs  straight  through.  Where  it  goes  through  the 
diameter,  the  amount  of  material  to  be  sheared  off  in 
order  to  permit  the  hub  being  moved  on  the  shaft,  is 
simply  twice  the  sectional  area  of  the  keys ;  but 
where  it  forms  a  chord,  that  amount  may  be  more  than 
trebled. 


:52  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Split  Cotters.  After  all  a  split  cotter  is  a  useful 
thing  and  prevents  much  loss  and  damage.  One 
very  nice  adaptation  of  it  on  a  large  scale  is  in  the 
tail-bolts  of  the  M.  C.  B.  couplers  on  the  N.  Y.  S.  & 
W.  Railway.  In  this  case  the  split  cotters  are  seven 
inches  long  and  two  and  one-half  inches  wide,  of 
flat  steel  about  fifteen  inches  long,  properly  turned 
over.  This  key  is  made  in  the  form  oi  a  cotter,  al- 
though it  has  two  cotters  which  pass  through  it ;  and 
if  these  latter  should  drop  out  the  key  would  be 
enough  of  a  cotter  to  hold  in  place  without  much 
risk.  (None  of  them  have  ever  dropped  out).  In 
similar  way  on  the  same  road,  the  keys  which  drive 
and  hold  the  bosses  in  the  connecting-rod  ends  are 
kept  from  dropping  out  by  having  a  lengthwise 
groove  on  the  face,  on  the  large  end,  and  into  this 
groove  there  engages  a  set-screw  which  passes  through 
a  lug  bolted  on  the  top  or  on  the  bottom  of  the  stub- 
end.  The  set-screw  will  allow  the  key  to  be  driven 
up  or  slacked  back,  without  the  screw  itself  being 
moved  ;  but  for  the  key  itself  to  drop  out  or  fly  is  an 
impossibility  so  long  as  the  end  of  the  set-screw  en- 
gages in  the  bottom  of  the  groove. 

The  Set=Screw  is  an  invention  of  the  devil.  Either 
you  want  a  piece  to  stay  where  it  is  without  adjust- 
ment, or  you  want  to  adjust  it  in  position.  The  set- 
screw  permits  of  neither  to  any  great  degree.  It  slips 
if  you  want  it  to  stay,  and  holds  on  like  grim  death 
when  you  want  to  back  it  out.  If  you  ever  had  had 
to  drill  one  out  which  had  been  broken  off  in  its  hole 
you  would  not  be  so  in  love  with  them.  Look  how 
they  score  up  good  shafts  so  that  if  you  want  to  move 
the  pulleys  along  you  can  never  use  the  places  where 
they  were  for  bearings. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  153 

A  compression  hub  is  the  only  way  to  hold  a  pulley 
on  a  shaft. 

In  Using  Set-Screws  (the  best  rule  is  not  to  use 
them  at  all  where  they  can  be  dispensed  with)  care 
should  be  taken  not  to  point  them.  In  most  cases  a 
flat-bearing  surface  will  answer;  but  for  a  good  grip 
their  ends  should  be  cupped  so  as  to  leave  a  narrow 
circular  rim  about  the  edge  of  the  end.  Anyone  who 
has  ever  seen  a  nice  length  of  shafting  spoiled  by  being 
spotted  with  set-screw  points  will  acknowledge  the 
wisdom  of  this  recommendation. 

For  Starting  Slot-Headed  Screws  that  have  had  the 
sides  of  the  slots  so  worn  down  or  battered  that  the  or- 
dinary screw-driver  will  slip  out  of  them,  use  an 
' '  old  man  ' '  (such  as  is  employed  in  drilling  and 
tapping),  to  hold  the  screw-driver  bit  down  to  its 
place.  'Tis  a  poor  rule  that  won't  work  both  ways; 
and  the  * '  old  man  ' '  clamp  may  be  used  in  backing 
out  a  screw  just  as  effectively  as  in  tapering  the 
thread . 

The  flonkey- Wrench  may  be  put  to  use  as  a  tube- 
cutter,  among  other  things,  by  providing  it  with  two 
sliding  pieces,  one  for  each  jaw,  and  one  of  which  has 
two  rollers  and  the  other  a  scoring- wheel.  The  ad- 
justment to  fit  any  size  pipe  may  be  made  in  a 
moment. 

Solid  Wrenches.  A  solid  wrench  devised  long  ago 
at  tf  Cornell,"  and  which  will  fit  a  nut  perfectly  and 
go  on  easily,  is  that  shown  in  outline  here.  In  order 
to  prevent  its  being  used  the  wrong  way,  the  handle 
is  made  of  the  section  shown  at  A ;  one  side  being 
round  and  smooth  and  the  other  having  a  sharp 
edge. 


154  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

It  is  not  likely  that  anyone,   however    ignorant   or 


FIG.  125. — "CORNELL"  SOLID  WRENCH. 

careless,  will  injure  either  a  nut  or  the  wrench  very 
much  by  turning  the  latter  backwards. 

Hammer-Eyes  should,  instead  of  being  straight- 
sided,  (either  with  or  without  taper)  be  larger  at  each 
side  than  in  the  center;  that  is,  of  slightly  hour-glass 
shape.  Then  when  the  wedge  is  driven  in,  their  bite 
on  the  handle  will  be  greater  than  if  their  lengthwise 
section  had  parallel  sides.  It  would  be  well  also  to 
have  a  bulge  in  the  handle  just  below  the  head,  not 
only  to  prevent  its  being  driven  in  too  far,  but  to 
give  greater  elasticity.  This  is  Prof.  Sweet's  idea. 

Interchangeable  Hammer.  Sometimes  one  wants 
a  copper  hammer,  sometimes  one  with  a  raw-hide 
head ;  at  other  times,  again,  one  with  a  wooden 
striking-part.  Editor  Colvin  has  invented  and  put 
on  the  market  one  having  facilities  for  clamping  just 
whatever  sort  you  wish  to  use  ;  and  it  is  highly  to  be 
recommended.  There  is  a  malleable  iron  head-part 
which  may  be  opened  out  or  screwed  together  to 
clamp  the  blocks  of  raw-hide  or  other  material. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  155 

Another  way  of  doing  the  same  thing,  perhaps  not  so 
well,  would  be  to  make  a  handle  having  in  each  end 
of  the  head  a  socket  with  a  coarse  female  thread  in 
which  there  may  be  screwed  a  block  of  wood,  copper, 
raw-hide,  hard  rubber  or  other  material,  as  desired, 
which  is  provided  with  the  corresponding  male 
thread.  Where  only  a  light  blow  is  necessary,  the 
head  may  be  made  of  hard  wood.  The  male  thread 
for  the  lead  piece  may  be  cast  in  the  iron  or  wooden 
female  as  a  mold  ;  a  black-lead  wash  being  used. 

Improving  Steel  Squares.  To  greatly  increase  the 
usefulness  of  a  small  steel  square,  fit  it  with  an  adjus- 
table blade  which  is  slotted  out  through  nearly  its 
entire  length,  to  receive  the  shank  of  a  milled  head 
clamping-screw,  which  is  passed  through  the  square 
at  such  a  point  as  will  bring  one  edge  of  the  extra 
blade  exactly  in  the  crotch  of  the  angle  of  the  square. 
With  this  arrangement  the  extra  or  beveling-blade 
may  be  placed  at  any  desired  angle  relatively  to  the 
inner  edges  of  the  square,  so  as  to  permit  its  use  in 
laying  out  lines  oh  the  ends  of  cylindrical  articles, 
etc.  With  a  little  care,  lines  may  be  scribed  on  the 
face  of  the  square  to  permit  the  bevel-blade  being  ad- 
justed so  as  to  make  an  angle  of  thirty,  forty-five  or 
any  other  number  of  degrees. 

No  one  yet,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  judge,  has 
had  the  wit  to  engrave  on  the  blade  or  on  the  stock 
of  a  steel  T-square  a  series  of  graduations  such  as 
those  on  the  Gunther's  scale,  by  which  with  a  series 
of  diagonal  lines  running  across  two  sets  of  lines  at 
right  angles  to  each  other,  tenths  of  the  graduations 
may  be  laid  off  with  the  dividers  without  trouble,  or 
fine  measurements  may  be  made. 

With  a  wooden  blade,  a  small  piece  of  ivory,  having 


156  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

just  the  same  graduations  as  there  are  usually  on  the 
left-hand  end  of  a  surveyor's  (Gunther's)  scale,  may 
be  let  in. 

Tools  for  One  Hand.  The  ordinary  run  of  machin- 
ists have  only  two  hands  apiece,  and  as  there  are 
many  cases  in  which  there  seems  to  be  great  necessity 
for  one  or  two  extra,  it  may  be  well  to  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  there  are  many  tools  which  are  now 
held  with  one  hand  and  adjusted  with  the  other, 
which  may  be  rendered  much  more  effective  by  pro- 
viding them  with  stands  or  handles.  Take  the  mi- 
crometer caliper,  for  instance.  It  is  very  easy  to  mill 
a  slot  in  the  top  of  a  cubical  block  of  hard  wood  or  of 
cast  iron  or  brass,  to  receive  its  bow,  so  that  it  may 
be  held  with  its  screw  horizontally  ;  and  boring  out  a 
slight  recess  at  one  end  of  the  slot  enables  the  mi- 
crometer to  be  used  with  the  screw  vertical ;  the  fit 
being  a  neat  one. 

Measuring  Pulley  and  Shaft  Diameters  may  be  very 
well  done  by  a  ve^y  thin  ribbon,  in  which  the  divisions, 
instead  of  being  in  inches  and  fractions  of  an  inch, 
are  3.1416  inches  each,  divided  into  equal  parts  either 
in  the  ordinary  binary  method  or  decimally.  Such  a 
measure  may  be  readily  made  by  laying  down  62.8 
inches  and  dividing  it  into  twenty  equal  parts,  each  of 
which  may  be  divided  into  sixteenths  or  tenths  as  de- 
sired. This  tape  wrapped  around  a  pulley  will  give 
its  diameter  in  inches  more  readily  than  it  may  be 
obtained  with  a  two-foot  rule.  Mr.  H.  H.  Suplee 
first  called  my  attention  to  this,  a  number  of  years 
ago,  in  the  works  of  Ixmdon,  Berry  &  Orton. 

Limit-Gage.  A  good  idea  in  the  way  of  a  limit- 
gage  to  show  variations  of  a  given  amount  above  and 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  157 

below  standard,  is  made  by  the  Brown  &  Sharpe  Co. 
There  is  a  tapered  notch  which  has  on  one  side  three 
marks.  At  one  of  these  it  is  standard  gage  ;  at  Jthe 
one  nearer  the  edge,  say  .005  inch  more  ;  at  the  one 
farthest  from  the  edge,  say  .005  inch  less.  It  is 
evident  that  the  less  the  taper  the  greater  the  distance 
between  these  marks,  so  that  any  multiplication  of 
the  fineness  of  indication  may  be  produced. 

Limit-Gage  for  Worm=Threads.  In  gaging  worm- 
wheels  for  hoisting-machinery,  Edwin  Harrington 
&  Sons  use  a  limit-gage,  having  its  lower  plug 
swiveled  to  adjust  itself  to  the  worm-pitch,  and  which 


FIG.  126.— LIMIT  GAGE  FOR  WORMS.    (HARRINGTONS.) 

has  a  special  limit  device,  as  shown  at  A  in  Fig- 
ure 1 26,  which  is  reproduced  from  * c  Machinery. ' '  The 
cone  plug  is  lightly  held  to  the  work  by  a  spring,  and 
the  worm  is  of  the  right  size  when  the  plug  is  flush 
with  the  top  of  the  gage. 

Distance  Between  Babbitted  Holes.  Where  it  is 
desired  to  have  a  definite  distance  between  babbitted 
holes,  as  in  a  connecting-rod,  the  method  employed 
by  the  builders  of  the  Westinghouse  high-speed 


158  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

engine  insures  absolute  accuracy,  while  at  the  same 
time  reducing  the  cost  considerably.  There  is  a  jig 
made  consisting  of  a  horizontal  slab,  having  in  it  two 
vertical  pins,  which  are  exactly  as  far  apart  as  the 
desired  distance  between  centers  of  the  holes  in  the 
connecting-rod ;  the  diameters  of  the  pins  being  prac- 
tically those  of  the  crosshead  pin  and  crank-pin.  The 
rod,  with  the  holes  previously  bored,  is  placed  over 
these  two  pins  and  babbitted  in  position ;  the  pins 
serving  as  mandrels  to  insure  the  proper  diameter, 
parallelism,  etc.,  of  the  holes. 

Drilling  Jigs.  To  get  two  holes  in  a  jig  in  the 
same  flat  surface,  at  a  desired  distance  from  center  to 
center,  can  be  done  by  the  aid  of  two  hardened 
steel  bushings  ground  to  a  known  outside  diameter 
and  lapped  out  to  fit  the  drills  and  reamers.  If  each 
has  a  flange  they  may  be  fastened  to  the  jig  at  any 
desired  distance.  If  there  is  some  one  standard  diam- 
eter of  tit  on  drills  in  the  shop,  these  bushings  may 
be  made  of  an  internal  diameter  to  fit  the  tits,  and 
this  will  lessen  the  cost  of  producing  holes  of  any 
diameter. 

Distinguishing  Jigs  and  Special  Tools.  Jigs  and 
special  tools  such  as  cradles,  gages,  etc.,  may,  if 
large  enough,  and  with  some  unpolished  surfaces,  be 
painted  vermilion,  as  with  shellac  varnish,  which  is 
renewed  and  dried  when  the  tool  has  become  dirty. 
This  marks  them  out  in  distinct  contrast  from  vari- 
ous castings  and  other  pieces  of  metal  around  the 
shop,  for  which  they  might  be  mistaken,  and  enables 
them  to  be  very  easily  found.  Especially  is  this  the 
case  where  some  of  them  consist  of  castings  which 
are  duplicates,  or  nearly  so,  of  some  of  the  castings 
which  are  component  parts  of  the  product  being 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


159 


manufactured.  This  happens  sometimes  in  the  case 
of  using  a  casting  as  a  sample  or  test-gage,  to  which 
to  fit  other  parts. 

The  experience  with  this  method  in  the  Ferracute 
Machine  Go's,  works  has  proved  its  great  con- 
venience. 

True  Repair- Work.  Enough  attention  is  not  paid 
to  the  desirability  of  having  repair-work  true 
with  the  original  work  on  pieces.  Thus  in  injectors, 
where  their  check- valves  have  to  be  refitted,  it  is  of 
course  important  to  have  the  work  central  with  the 
original  lathe-work.  This  is  sometimes  neglected. 
In  such  cases,  as  in  the  railway  shop,  where  there 
are  hundreds  of  similar  pieces  to  be  worked  on,  it  is 
well  to  have  a  jig  which  screws  into  the  casing  and 
will  thus  permit  the  tool  working  exactly  centrally, 
as  often  as  a  valve  requires  refitting. 

Wrinkle  in  Center-Gages.  One  difficulty  with 
center- gages  is  that  they  do  not  always  have  at  first, 


FIG.  127. — ADJUSTABLE  CENTER-GAGE. 

and  even  if  they  do,    they  usually   soon   lose,    ac- 
curacy  clear   up   to  the   point.     A   similar  trouble 


160  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

existed  with  saw-sets  which  spread  the  teeth ;  but  that 
was  got  around  by  sawing  a  kerf  in  the  angle  and 
then  driving  the  sides  together  with  a  ring.  This 
course  cannot  so  readily  be  pursued  with  center- 
gages,  but  the  same  result  may  be  obtained  by  hav- 
ing the  notch  made  of  separate  pieces,  held  together 
by  a  ring.  These  pieces  may  be  ground  separately 
and  the  contacting  edges  may  be  varied  by  sliding 
the  one  of  them  on  the  other.  I  show  such  a  gage 
in  Figure  127  ;  and  would  say  that  as  far  as  I  know 
it  is  the  only  center-gage  that  will  fit  any  size  of 
inside  threading- tool. 

Pinning  of  Files.  Your  man  is  complaining  that 
his  file  '  *  pins  ' '  or  fills  with  copper  filings  when  he 
is  filing  down  those  commutators.  There  are  two 
ways  by  which  he  can  prevent  it ;  one  to  use  the  file 
backwards  for  the  finishing  touches  and  the  other  to 
chalk  the  tool  well  every  now  and  then ;  the  chalk 
will  prevent  the  filings  from  sticking  to  the  steel. 
Another  way  still  is  not  to  file  the  commutators,  but 
to  work  them  down  with  sand-paper — not  on  any  ac- 
count with  emery-cloth,  because  that  will  fill  the 
places  between  the  sections  with  a  conducting  film 
of  oxide  of  iron.  If  you  will  take  a  block,  work  in 
it  a  semi-circle  of  the  same  diameter  as  the  commu- 
tator, and  line  this  semi-circle  with  glass-cloth,  you 
can  by  turning  the  commutator  at  a  high-speed  and 
applying  the  glass-cloth-covered  block,  bring  the 
commutator  to  as  high  a  degree  of  finish  as  you 
desire. 

Ruining  Files.  If  all  those  who  use  files  had  to 
pay  the  bills  for  them  they  would  be  better  taken 
care  of.  In  the  first  place,  no  file  is  improved  by 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  161 

being  thrown  about  higgledy-piggledy  in  contact  with 
other  files  and  with  other  hard  steel  objects  ;  yet  this 
is  done  every  day,  at  the  expense  of  the  cutting-edges, 
every  one  of  which,  if  not  presented  properly  to  hard 
material,  is  as  tender  as  a  good  conscience.  Files 
that  have  been  thrown  about  have  nicks  in  their 
cutting-edges,  (so-called  teeth)  and  particularly  in 
those  on  their  narrow  sides  or  the  edges  of  the  file 
itself. 

Then  sufficient  care  is  not  taken  about  using  new 
files  only  on  good  and  particular  work.  A  new  file 
should  never  be  taken  to  clean  castings  or  to  do  any 
work  where  a  fine  result  is  not  desired,  and  where  there 
are  case-hardened  or  chilled  surfaces  which  will  in- 
jure its  teeth.  Yet  this  is  one  of  the  most  common 
difficulties  to  encounter  in  shops,  particularly  those 
where  there  is  a  tool- room  and  no  one  man  has  the 
certainty  that  the  file  which  he  ruins  one  day  by  reason 
of  his  being  too  lazy  to  go  to  the  tool-room  to  get  a 
more  suitable  one,  will  ever  come  back  again  to  him. 
Files  are  also  spoiled  by  being  allowed  to  clog  up 
with  brass-filings  and  similar  materials,  which  calls 
for  the  necessity  of  putting  greater  pressure  on  them 
in  use,  and  produces  irregular  wear  in  spots  on  the 
file  itself,  as  well  as  bad  work  on  the  article  being  filed. 

The  system  of  sticking  a  file  up  in  a  bench  by  its 
tang  is  all  very  well  in  Chili  or  some  such  country 
where,  unless  that  or  some  similar  precaution  is  taken, 
the  natives  will  slip  them  up  their  sleeves  as  fast  as 
the  owners'  eyes  are  turned  ;  but  it  should  not  be  at 
all  necessary  in  this  country,  and  particularly  in  a 
shop  where  there  is  a  tool-room. 

False  Economy  in  File-Buying.  I  see  that  you 
have  been  buying  files  of  Judkins,  and  I  know  why 


i6z  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

you  bought  them  : — because  you  saved  something  on 
the  first  cost  of  every  dozen.  But  if  you  will  take 
some  of  those  fourteen-inch  ones  which  you  have 
just  bought,  and  weigh  a  dozen  of  them  alongside  of 
a  dozen  of  the  old  ones  of  the  same  length,  face,  and 
cut,  you  will  find  that  there  is  about  one- fourth  to 
one- third  less  metal  in  the  new  ones.  And  if  you 
figure  it  up  that  you  can  at  best  get  only  one  re- 
cutting  out  of  them,  and  then  will  have  only  some 
scrap-steel  about,  you  will  find  out  that  it  pays  to  buy 
the  heavier  files  at  five  per  cent,  or  even  ten  per  cent, 
higher  price.  Besides  this,  if  you  will  let  the  old 
hands  in  the  shop  have  their  choice  of  the  two,  you 
will  find  that  they  will  prefer  the  old  kind,  because 
they  take  hold  better  and  require  less  elbow-grease 
back  of  them.  It  is  a  pretty  fair  indication  of  the 
value  of  the  steel  in  a  tool,  to  let  the  piece-work  hands 
have  a  chance  to  use  it  or  let  it  alone.  The  tool  that 
requires  frequent  re-sharpening  is  the  one  which  the 
piece-work  hands  don't  like ;  and  the  file  that  requires 
biceps  to  make  it  do  its  work,  instead  of  biting  into 
the  work  as  if  it  loved  it,  is  the  one  which  the  piece- 
work hands  .and  the  ( '  old  boys  ' '  about  the  shop  will 
let  severely  alone  as  soon  as  they  find  it  out;  and  it 
don't  take  a  man  long  to  find  out  such  a  thing  as  that. 
File=Sharpening.  A  propos  of  files  and  their  work, 
it  is  strange  that  an  American  invention,  the  sand- 
blast, has  taken  hold  so  well  in  England  and  on  the 
Continent  of  Europe  for  file-sharpening,  and  seems  to 
have  been  practically  neglected  on  this  side,  in  the 
same  connection.  If  you  will  look  at  a  new  file  you 
will  find  that  there  are  on  the  ends  of  the  teeth,  cer- 
tain small-hooks,  and  these  correspond  to  the  wire- 
edge  on  a  knife  or  a  razor.  Of  course  they  are  not 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  163 

desirable ;  but  there  is  no  way  of  making  file-teeth 
with  a  chisel,  particularly  if  it  is  held  by  a  machine, 
without  having  these  same  hooks.  The  sand-blast 
cuts  files  without  such  wire-edges,  and  re-cuts  old  ones 
better  than  they  can  be  done  by  hand ;  and  many 
English  establishments  have  their  new  files  given  a 
little  sand-blasting  before  they  are  put  in  service,  the 
object  being  to  give  them  better  cutting-edges  than 
the  makers  turn  them  out  with. 

Sectional  Files.  Purchasers  of  files  usually  buy 
them  too  light,  so  that  they  cannot  be  re-cut  more 
than  three  times,  unless  they  are  large  square  files, 
in  which  case  they  may  be  re-cut  as  many  as  seven 
times  as  a  maximum,  producing  at  each  successive 
re- cutting  a  flatter  section  than  at  the  preceding  one. 
At  each  cutting  there  is  about  ten  to  twelve  per  cent 
of  loss  due  to  grinding  out  the  old  teeth.  The  result  is 
that  ordinary  files,  even  of  the  heaviest  kind,  cost 
more  per  pound  of  file  and  more  per  given  weight  of 
metal  filed  away  by  them  than  they  should. 

When  in  Germany  the  last  time,  I  looked  into  the 
question  of  this  loss  of  file-material,  and  made  some 
calculations  based  on  actual  experience,  as  to  the  cost, 
under  the  present  system,  of  renewal;  and  the  figures 
that  I  there  got  I  here  give. 

An  ordinary  file  450  m/m  (say  18  inches)  long  by 
48  m/m  (say  i.  2  inches)  wide,  weighs  3  kilograms, 
(6.  6  pounds,)  if  it  is  a  heavy  one,  calculated  to  stand 
six  or  seven  re-cuttings.  It  costs  originally  2.  40 
marks,  (say  60  cents)  if  of  bastard  cut,  and  3  marks 
if  smooth  cut.  Each  time  that  it  is  re-cut  it  loses  12 
per  cent,  of  its  weight.  The  price  of  re-cutting  in 
Germany  is  o.  40  marks  (10  cents)  per  kilogram  for 


1 64  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

bastard  and  o.  60  marks  for  smooth.     On   this   basis 
we  have 

Price,  Marks. 

Weight,  Kg.     Bastard.          Smooth, 
i  new  file,  3.  2.40  3. 


ist  re-cutting      2. 

2nd  "               2.640 

3rd  2.324 

4th  2.046 

5th  "               1.801 

6th  1.585 

7th  "               1.405 


14.801  x. 40=5.92  ;  x  .60=8.88 

8.32  11.88 

8.32 

Price  of  two  new  files  and  seven  )  M 

re-cuttings  of  each  one         $ 

I  find  that  they  use  in  the  several  shops  of  the  gov- 
ernment railways  in  Prussia,  Saxony,  Baden,  etc., 
sectional  files  composed  of  two  blades  strained  on  a 
wrought-iron  handle,  supplied  with  a  tang  and  a  wood- 
en handle  the  same  as  any  ordinary  file.  Each  of 
these  blades  is  composed  of  a  triple  thickness — two 
films  of  steel  with  a  thickness  of  wrought  iron  be- 
tween ;  the  steel  cut  by  machine  and  tempered  glass 
hard.  When  one  side  of  either  blade  is  worn  out  it  is 
turned  to  present  the  other  side.  Ordinarily  the  work- 
man has  one  bastard  and  one  smooth  blade  on  the 
holder.  The  blades  are  strained  between  a  fixed  pin 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  165 

at  the  tip  of  the  "body,"  and  a  sliding  pin  at  the 
butt,  the  latter  operated  by  a  little  wedge.  These 
blades,  although  as  I  said,  glass  hard,  were  so  tough 
that  they  could  be  thrown  up  in  the  air  ten  feet  and  let 
drop  on  the  shop  floor  without  their  breaking ;  some- 
thing that  could  not  be  done  to  the  ordinary  files  in 
the  shop.  When  both  sides  of  the  blade  are  dull, 
they  are  re-sharpened  by  sand-blast — this  being  possi- 
ble only  twice.  The  piece-work  hands  greatly  prefer 
these  sectional  files  to  the  ordinary  ones,  by  reason  of 
their  superior  hardness  and  convenience ;  and  the 
workmen,  the  foremen,  and  the  purchasers,  all  said 
that  their  life  was  about  three  times  as  long  as  that 
of  ordinary  files.  Taking  the  life  of  one  twice  as  long 
for  these  glass-hard  blades,  as  for  non- sectional  files 
of  good  quality  ;  assuming  that  one  of  the  holders 
would  last  through  the  life  of  twenty  pairs  of  blades 
(there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  last  longer)  and 
we  have,  taking  the  actual  costs  of  sectional  and  non- 
sectional  files  in  Germany,  the  following  : 

2  blades,  bastard  cut,            at  M  1.60,  -  M  3.20 

2  blades,  smooth  cut,            at      2.10,  -  4.20 

4  re- cuttings  by  sand-blast,  at      0.50,  -  2. 

Proportion  of  the  cost  of  the  holder,  -  .15 


M9-55 

as  against  20.20  marks  for  the  non-sectional  file  ;  an 
economy  of  over  50  per  cent. 

There  is  also  an  economy  of  labor,  because  these 
files  bite  better  than  the  non-sectional ;  and  they  are 
more  readily  handled  ;  the  proprietor  of  the  shop 
finds  also  that  he  can  deliver  work  more  quickly, 


166  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

because  it  takes  less  time  to  file  it  up.  As  the  sec- 
tional files  are  lighter  there  is  an  economy  in  freight 
and  duty.  The  consumer  does  not  require  to  carry  so 
large  nor  so  expensive  a  stock  ;  there  is  complete  in- 
dependence of  the  re-cutter ;  and  as  the  sectional  files 
are  non-breakable  there  are  no  losses  from  this  cause. 

The  system  is  not  adaptable  with  economy  in  man- 
ufacture to  files  less  than  twelve  inches  in  length ; 
the  sectional  files  cannot  be  cut  on  the  edge,  and  no 
other  than  flat  files  can  be  made  in  this  way ;  but 
with  all  these  drawbacks  the  sectional  file  is  adopted 
exclusively  by  many  governmental  and  private  es- 
tablishments in  Germany  for  all  sizes  from  twelve 
inches  upwards  as  greatly  superior  to  the  non-sec- 
tional. 

A  visit  to  the  factory  reveals  the  fact  that  the 
blades  are  cut  while  under  tension,  in  a  machine 
which  makes  from  ten  to  eighty  cuts  per  inch  of  file- 
length,  and  makes  them  all  alike  at  any  desired  angle 
to  the  length  and  to  the  surface  of  the  blade. 

FiIe=Tangs  have  since  time  immemorial  been  made 
with  tapering  tangs  ;  and  these  are  as  well  adapted  to 
splitting  the  handles  and  to  permitting  the  files  to 
come  out,  as  though  they  had  been  specially  designed 
for  that  purpose.  They  should  be  made  with  parallel 
sides — that  is,  of  rectangular  cross-section  ;  of  course 
avoiding  any  sudden  change  of  section  where  they 
join  the  body  of  the  file. 

The  Best  Vise-Hight.  I  should  think  that  your  fore- 
man would  see,  every  time  that  he  went  over  on  that 
side  of  the  shop,  that  yon  have  benchmen  who  are 
working  at  a  disadvantage  in  having  their  vises  too 
high.  Watch  that  man  as  he  works.  The  top  of  his 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT 


167 


vise  is  higher  than  his  elbow-joint  as  he  stands  at  the 
bench  ;  and  every  time  that  he  makes  a  forward  stroke 
he  has  to  raise  his  whole  arm,  including  his  shoulder; 
and  even  then  he  doesn't  make  a  straight  horizontal 
stroke.  Now  if  you  will  lower  that  vise  about  two 
inches,  or  give  the  man  a  platform  to  stand  on,  you 
will  enable  him  to  do  more  work,  and  better  work, 
with  greater  comfort,  than  at  present.  As  the  work- 
man's elbow  will  average  between  forty  and  forty-four 
inches  from  the  floor,  you  may  say  that  forty-two  is 
the  proper  average.  Fine,  light  work  will  permit 
of,  in  fact  require,  a  higher  vise,  than  coarse  heavy 
work. 

These  are  among  the  little  things,  a  few  hundreds 
of  which  make  up  the  difference  between  good  work 
and  bad  work  about  a  shop,  or  between  success  in 
general,  and  mediocrity. 

Bevel  Filing.     Where  there  is  a  great  deal  of  thin 


FIG.  128  —BEVEL  FILING. 


work  to  be  filed  at  an  angle — as  the  beveled  edges  of 
gun-lock  plates,  etc.,  the  contrivance  shown  in  Figure 


i68  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

138  comes  admirably  in  play.  It  is  placed  between 
the  jaws  of  the  vise  and  firmly  holds  the  object  at  the 
desired  angle,  so  that  if  you  file  horizontally,  the  plate 
will  be  properly  beveled.  The  spring  between  the 
jaws  serves  to  throw  them  apart  as  the  main  vise  is 
opened  out. 

Finish  versus  flaterial.  After  several  years  of  ex- 
periment, more  or  less  costly,  the  great  American  tool- 
using  public  is  beginning  to  wake  up  to  the  idea  that 
you  cannot  make  machine-tools  out  of  filler  and  stone 
finish.  It  has  been  tried  and  found  wanting,  but  no 
longer  wanted.  Machine-tool  users  have  given  hints 
to  builders  to  put  in  a  little  more  iron,  and  a  little 
more  iron  still,  and  they  have  thickened  up  their  pat- 
terns, and  stiffened  up  their  shafts,  lengthened  out 
their  journals  and  bearings,  and  stretched  their  slides, 
and  so  on  all  the  way  around  their  tools,  until  they 
are  in  one  sense  like  the  boy's  knife  that  had  had  five 
new  handles  and  seven  new  blades.  But  they  have 
the  virtue  that  they  stand  up  under  their  work  and 
enable  bigger  and  better  work  and  more  of  it  to  be 
done  than  used  to  be  the  case. 

Finishing=CIamps.  The  clamps  illustrated  in  Figure 
139,  are  suggested  by  Mr.  J.  S.  Converse.  The  two 

Hxn °XP 


FIG.  129.— IRON  POLISHING  AND  SIZING  CLAMP. 

screws  E  F  thread  into  the  lower  half  and  abut  against 
the  other,  while  babbitt  bushes  are  inserted  at  J.  They 
act  as  a  polishing-clamp  if  run  long  enough,  without 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  169 

supply  ing  any  more  emery ;  and  are  made  in  this  shape 
to  insure  a  rounder  product  than  where  the  clamps 
are  hinged. 

Truing  off  Fly- Wheels.  There  is  often  a  slight  lack 
of  truth  in  fly-wheels,  caused  either  by  their  being 
turned  off  bodily  or  being  keyed  on  their  shafts  im- 
properly, or  by  local  changes  taking  place,  from  their 
being  turned  down  before  they  have  got  their  "set," 
in  which  case  they  may  spring  a  trifle  out  of  line, 


FIG.  130. — TRUING  OFF  FLY-WHEELS. 

after  being  turned,  and  then  sometimes  the  finish  is 
not  all  that  could  be  desired.  While  "fudging" 
should  be  discountenanced  except  where  it  is  practi- 
cally absolutely  necessary,  it  is  well  to  be  able  to  know 
how  to  "  fudge  "  if  there  is  no  other  way  out  of  it. 
One  instance  of  ' 4  fudging ' '  is  truing-off  a  fly-wheel 


1 70  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

after  it  is  in  place,  and  may  be  accomplished  by  using 
a  piece  of  grindstone,  with  a  heavy  block  as  a  steady- 
rest.  This,  of  course,  will  not  remove  much  metal, 
but  it  is  practical  where  there  is  but  a  trifle  to  take 
off,  especially  where  it  is  only  desired  to  remove  the 
tool-marks  from  the  rim,  in  which  case  it  answers 
admirably. 

Colors  of  Patterns  and  Core-Prints.  In  common 
with  many  other  concerns  the  Ferracute  Machine  Co. 
has  adopted  black  as  the  standard  color  for  its  pat- 
terns upon  all  surfaces  representing  cored  surfaces  of 
the  casting.  All  core-prints  are  colored  red,  both 
where  they  project  from  the  pattern,  and  wherever  a 
core  would  appear  in  section,  at  all  points  thereof ; 
for  the  core  is  supposed  to  be  imbedded  in  the  pattern 
in  proper  position.  This  following  out  of  the  shapes 
of  the  core,  so  to  speak,  with  red  varnish  is  frequent- 
ly of  great  convenience  to  the  moulder  as  well  as  the 
pattern  maker,  in  understanding  which  way  about  a 
core  is  inserted,  how  deep  it  goes,  etc. 

The  Ferracute  people  color  all  prints  other  than 
core- prints,  such  as  are  used  for  the  placing  of  shafts, 
studs,  staples,  and  other  metal  work  which  is  to  be 
41  cast  in,"  blue;  this  being  suggestive  of  the 
wrought  iron  which  is  generally  used  for  such  pur- 
poses. 

All  joints  of  the  pattern  proper,  except  those  oc- 
curring in  the  territory  occupied  by  the  core,  are  of  a 
yellowish  tint,  just  as  the  varnish  appears  on  the 
natural  pine  wood ;  they  doctor  up  with  yellow  varnish 
places  which  happen  to  be  of  any  other  color,  as,  for 
instance,  if  made  of  metal  or  of  dark  colored  wood, 
leather,  putty,  etc.  By  this  system  it  is  always  easy 
o  know  whether  a  pattern  is  complete  or  whether  it 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  171 

is  only  a  part  of  a  whole,  which  of  course  is  always 
indicated  where  there  is  any  yellow  surface. 

In  choosing  the  solid  colors,  such  as  black,  blue 
and  red,  (these  being  produced  respectively  by  mix- 
ing lampblack,  ultramarine  and  vermilion  with  shel- 
lac varnish)  defects  due  to  leather,  putty  and  other 
materials,  incident  to  cheap  construction,  can  be  cov- 
ered up,  and  a  handsome  looking  pattern  with  a 
uniform  surface  can  be  produced.  The  joints  before 
referred  to  which  are  not  covered,  are  usually  the 
easiest  to  make  of  a  neat  appearance  by  reason  of 
their  simple  shape,  and,  furthermore,  they  are  hidden 
when  the  pattern  is  put  together.  For  these  reasons 
this  pattern  is  by  many  concerns  preferred  to  the  one 
often  adopted  where  the  pattern  itself  is  yellow  and 
the  core  prints  black,  or  vice  versa. 

Pattern=Finishing.  Pattern-makers  do  not  often 
consider  the  best  way  of  holding  work  while  it  is  in 
progress.  For  instance — in  making  the  "  false 
head  "  for  a  steam- cylinder  head ;  it  is  constructed  as 
shown  by  the  black  lines  in  Figure  131,  to  fit  into 
the  cylinder-head,  which  is  represented  by  the 


FIG.  113.— LUGS  FOR  CYLINDER  HEAD  PATTERNS. 

dotted  lines.  Such  false  heads  are  usually  designed 
so  that  the  jaws  of  a  common  lathe-chuck  will  not 
reach  over  the  round  portion  far  enough  to  hold  them. 
Now  if  the  pattern-maker  would  just  put  on  some 
small  lugs  (as  shown  at  a,  a,)  on  which  the  chuck- 


172 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


jaws  might  catch,  there  would  be  no  trouble  in  hold- 
ing the  piece  while  the  edges  were  faced  off  where 
they  fit  the  main  head.  Then  the  main  head  could 
be  chucked  and  the  whole  surface  turned  at  one 
operation.  This  would  save  much  time  in  the  ma- 
chine-shop and  avoid  many  straps  and  bolts. 

There  are  many  other  pieces — such  as  pistons, 
pumps,  bonnets,  valves,  etc.,  on  which  it  would  be 
desirable  to  cast  lugs  in  order  to  save  time  in  hand- 
ling them  in  lathe  or  planer, 

Enlarging  Patterns  for  Busts,  etc.  I  saw  a  good 
wrinkle  being  used  by  an  Italian  in  Paris.  There  is, 


\ 


FIG.  132. — ENLARGING  PATTERNS  FOR  BUSTS. 

say,  a  small  head  of  somebody  or  other — whether  it 
is  of  St.   Peter  or   of  Peter  Cooper  makes  very  little 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  173 

difference;  it  is  desired  to  make  a  colossal  copy  of  it 
for  use  in  a  bronze- foundry.  It  is  marked  off  into 
horizontal  planes  of  equal  distances  apart ;  and  into 
radial  vertical  planes  axial  with  its  central  line ;  then 
the  distances  are  calipered  and  transferred  to  a  honey- 
comb-frame, built  up  of  thin  boards  arranged  in 
planes  which  are  symmetrical  with  the  markings  on 
the  original.  By  cutting  into  these  boards  to  the 
required  distances  you  soon  have  a  skeleton  which 
corresponds  in  outline  with  the  original.  The  spaces 
between  the  thin  boards  are  filled  up  with  plaster  or 
other  material,  and  there  you  have  the  enlarged  copy 
made  in  a  very  cheap,  accurate  and  practical  way. 

Pattern-Making.  A  very  good  ' '  kink ' '  in  pattern- 
making  may  be  found  in  the  shops  of  the  Ferracute 
Machine  Co.  In  order  to  produce  cheaper  patterns, 
some  of  which  are  rather  temporary  in  their  charac- 
ter, and  all  of  which  in  these  days  of  improvement  are 
subject  to  alterations,  they  find  that  it  pays  best  to 
put  them  together  in  as  cheap  a  way  as  possible, 
without  any  regard  to  the  elegant  joiner- work  of  the 
old-fashioned  pattern-makers,  providing  they  give 
them  strength  enough  to  serve  their  purpose  and  get 
them  the  right  size  and  shape.  In  general  they  pay 
a  good  deal  more  attention  to  the  artistic  form,  in 
the  way  of  nicely  rounded  fillets  and  corners,  and 
harmonious  curves,  together  with  as  much  absence 
as  possible  of  external  rib- work,  than  they  do  to  a 
beautiful  job  of  fitting  and  joining.  To  accomplish 
this  they  use  mill-dressed  lumber,  planed  to  accurate 
thickness  as  much  as  possible,  and  put  their  work  to 
shape  wherever  they  can  with  circular  and  band-saws 
and  u Fox"  trimming  machines.  They  avoid  ex- 
pensively-carved wooden  fillets,  putting  in  ready-made 


174 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


lead  and  leather  fillets,  or  oftener,  extemporized 
ones  of  putty  mixed  with  litharge  and  shellac, 
being  careful  to  shellac  the  surfaces  before  applying 
them;  sometimes,  with  large  fillets,  putting  in  a  few 
rows  of  nails  by  way  of  anchorage. 

To  rub  the  putty  down  to  proper  shape,  and  give 
sufficient  hardness,  they  use  spherical-ended  brass 
formers,  which  they  keep  on  hand,  made  to  all  the 
different  radii  required.  They  find  that  polished 
brass  works  better  than  any  other  metal  which  they 
have  tried,  as  it  does  not  stick  to  the  somewhat  juicy 
mixture  of  putty  and  shellac  varnish,  as  does  iron,  for 
instance. 

Pattern-flaker's  Device.  That  pattern-maker  is 
spoiling  those  patterns  by  jabbing  an  awl  in  them  to 
hold  them  up  by  when  he  is  shellacking  them  ;  and  it 
takes  some  force  to  get  the  awl  out  again.  A  better 
way  is  to  have  a  tool  consisting  of  a  handle  having 
three  long  fine  points  arranged  in  a  triangle  at  its  end, 
and  with  a  clearing-rod  running  through  its  center, 
by  which  to  press  off  the  piece  when  through  with  it. 
This  clearing- rod  may  be  a  separate  piece  of  stout 
wire  kept  in  a  handy  position,  or  it  may  be  a  trifle 


FIG.  133. — PATTERN-MAKER'S  DEVICE. 

longer  than  the  handle  and  be  contained  in  the  latter, 
and  held  away  from  its  pointed  end  by  a  spring,  so 
that  when  it  is  pressed  on,  the  piece  will  be  clear  from 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  175 

the  holder ;  and  when  it  is  no  longer  pressed  on,  the 
spring  will  retire  back  of  the  projection  of  the  three 
holding-points. 

Shellac-Can.  Pattern-makers  may  be  judged  very 
largely  by  their  shellac-cans,  jnst  as  restaurants  may 
be  given  their  due  rank  by  the  mustard-pot.  The  can 
shown  in  Figure  134  has  a  jacket  around  the  out- 
side, to  hold  half  an  inch  of  oil  or  of  water  as  a  non- 
sticking  seal  for  the  cover.  That  is,  there  is  an  out- 


FIG.  134. — SHELLAC-CAN. 

side  can,  or  cup,  to  the  bottom  of  which  is  soldered 
an  inside  one,  also  open  at  the  top  but  about  half  an 
inch  or  an  inch  higher  than  the  outside  one.  Then 
the  cover  fits  in  between  them  ;  it  having  a  steeple- 
like  handle  in  which  the  handle  of  the  brush  finds 


176  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

room.     I  got  this  idea  long  ago  in  Syracuse,  but  for- 
get in  what  shop. 

Feeding  Heavy  Planks  to  a  Saw.  Brains  should  save 
muscles.  It  seems  strange  why  men  will  exert  the 
maximum  amount  of  muscular  effort  required  to  do  a 
particular  piece  of  work,  when  by  the  exertion  of  a 
very  small  amount  of  brain-force  they  could  save 
hard  physical  effort.  Here  I  see  a  man  engaged  in 
feeding  long  and  heavy  planks  to  a  circular  saw,  on  a 
long  andrough  table;  there  are  no  anti- friction  rollers, 
and  the  work  of  feeding  is  severe.  If  that  man  would 
only  stop  a  moment,  and  strew  a  little  coarse  sawdust 
on  the  table  where  the  planks  are  to  slide  over  it,  he 
would  find  that  they  would  serve  as  anti- friction  roll- 
ers, or  balls,  to  lessen  the  resistance  of  the  planks  be- 
ing slid  over  the  table.  But  if  he  had  charge  of  that 
saw-bench  for  seventeen  years  he  would  probably 
never  think  of  it. 

In  Making  Very  Slender  Twist  Holdings,  say  from 
half -inch  rods,  there  is  great  danger  of  breaking  the 
stock  unless  some  special  precaution  is  taken ;  and 
when  the  wood  is  at  all  brittle,  and  the  pieces  to  be 
made  are  long — say  ten  feet,  as  is  sometimes  needed 
in  screen- work — it  is  absolutely  imperative  to  do  some- 
thing out  of  the  ordinary  run  in  order  to  get  each  piece 
perfect.  This  may  be  done  by  boring  through  a 
wooden  block  a  hole  of  the  exact  diameter  of  the  rod 
and  passing  the  rod  through  it ;  then  clamping  this 
block  in  the  machine  in  such  a  position  that  the  rod 
will  have  lengthwise  feed  as  in  ordinary  cutting,  let 
the  cutters  work  their  way  through  the  block  form 
their  own  passage.  They  will  work  the  rod  regularly 
into  the  screw  or  twist,  and  the  block  will  remain  as 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHA  T.  177 

a  ' '  doctor, ' '  holding  the  rod  with  absolute  smooth- 
ness and  allowing  it  to  be  rotated  with  freedom  while 
being  cut  in  the  spiral. 

Of  course  for  such  work  round  stock  is  absolutely 
necessary  ;  but  as  it  would  be  impossible  to  make  it 
out  of  such  fine  stuff,  and  practically  impossible  to 
make  it  out  of  any  round  stuff,  unsupported,  that  will 
be  found  no  hardship. 

Twist-Cutters.  There  is  one  class  of  twist-making 
machines  which  work  by  two  sets  of  rotating  cutters, 
one  right  and  the  other  left,  clamped  to  opposite 
sides  of  a  rotating  disk,  and  cutting  the  material  from 
without  towards  the  center.  The  knives  of  this  ma- 
chine have,  of  course,  to  be  made  of  a  difficult  contour 
to  produce  the  desired  outline ;  but  they  do  not  by 
any  means  fit  the  contour  of  the  surface  produced, 
any  more  than  straight  molding-knives  correspond 
with  the  moldings  which  they  produce.  It  would 
seem  a  very  pretty  piece  of  geometrical  projection  to 
work  out  the  proper  outline  of  the  cutters  for  any 
given  inclination  of  the  cutter-head,  (and  in  this  ma- 
chine the  cutter-head  has  a  variable  inclination  to 
the  axis  of  the  piece)  but  all  this  may  be  done  away 
with  by  first  making  a  template  corresponding  exact- 
ly to  the  contour  of  the  molding  which  forms  the 
twist.  This  may  be  the  arc  of  a  circle,  or  it  may  be 
an  elliptical  curve,  or  it  .may  be  any  one  of  a  hundred 
othe  curves  ;  but,  of  course,  a  template  may  be  made 
to  match  it.  Next  a  wooden  disk  is  turned  up  to  fit 
the  molding,  lying  snug  between  two  threads  or  turns 
of  the  twist.  Then  taking  an  arc  of  this  disk-cir- 
cumference equal  to  the  angle  at  which  the  cutters 
are  to  be  presented  to  the  stock  in  cutting  it,  the 
material  is  cut  down  by  a  saw  to  the  central  plane  of 


1 78  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

the  disk,  and  then  divided  so  as  to  leave  a  step  as  it 
were.  The  cutting-line  will  not  be  radial  but  will  be 
a  chord  ;  the  piece  removed  will  be  a  segment  of  the 
disk,  and  the  contour  revealed  on  the  piece  that  is 
cut  away,  or  on  the  shoulder  that  is  left,  will  be  the 
template  for  the  knives  ;  that  at  one  end  of  the  chord 
for  the  right-hand  knives,  and  that  on  the  other  end  for 
the  left-hand  knives. 

The  work  may  be  made  even  more  simple  by  screw- 
ing together  two  disks  and  turning  them  down  to  fit 
the  twist,  being  particular  to  make  the  parting  come 
at  the  line  where  the  curves  leave  each  other,  so  that 
cutting  one  simple  saw-kerf  down  from  the  face  of 
one  of  the  disks  will  cause  the  segment  to  drop  off 
and  leave  the  templates  revealed.  Pryibils  got  up 
this  plan. 

In  Planing  Gummy  Timber  keep  at  hand  a  greasy 
rag,  with  which  to  wipe  off  the  face  of  the  plane-body  ; 
it  will  help  wonderfully. 

A  Spur  Chuck  for  Wood=Turning,  which  is  especial- 
ly good  for  holding  small  pieces  of  soft  wood  without 
spoiling  them,  is  shown  in  Figure  135.  The  four  spurs 


FIG.  135. — SPUR  CHUCK  FOR  WOOD-TURNING. 

are  parallel  on  their  outer  surfaces  only,  thus  com- 
pressing the  wood  between  them  without  spreading 
the  fibers  around  them. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT,  179 

A  Depth-Gage  for  Boring  Holes  in  Wood  is  very  read- 
ily made  by  boring  a  hole  endwise  through  a  small 
wooden  block  and  sticking  it  on  the  bit ;  its  length 
being  equal  to  the  projection  of  the  bit,  less  the  de- 
sired depth  of  the  hole. 

Steam-Hammers  as  Steam=Consumers.  The 
4 'Shovel  Engineer"  who  has  the  pleasure  (?)  of 
feeding  the  boiler  furnace  the  black  diamonds  is  no 
great  admirer  of  steam-hammers  except  in  the  ab- 
stract. They  cause  him  too  much  work.  Their 
capacity  for  steam  is  practically  unlimited.  Their 
appetite  is  great,  and  their  capacity  quite  commen- 
surate therewith.  There  is  only  one  way  of  getting  the 
best  of  them — and  that  is  to  make  them  furnish  their 
own  steam.  This  would  sound  like  perpetual  motion 
or  conservation  of  energy,  or  something  like  that, 
but  it  is  the  only  simple  common-sense  economy.  In 
nine  cases  out  of  ten  where  steam-hammers  are  used 
it  is  to  forge  up  hot  stock ;  and  to  get  stock  hot  it  is 
necessary  to  have  great  heating- furnaces.  All  that  is 
necessary  to  do  is  to  have  a  passage  for  the  combus- 
tion-gases of  the  heating-furnaces  around  boilers  of 
the  requisite  capacity,  and  the  problem  is  solved — 
solved  in  the  most  satisfactory  way,  too;  because 
when  the  hammers  are  most  busy  and  require  most 
steam  there  is  most  heat  in  the  furnaces.  In  such  a 
hammer-shop  as  that  of  the  Baldwin  Locomotive 
Works,  where  the  hammers  are  "made  to  furnish 
their  own  steam  J }  there  is  always  steam  to  blow  off. 
Yet  I  have  seen  shops  where  good  coal  was  shoveled 
under  the  boilers  which  supplied  the  hammers,  and  the 
heating-furnaces  were  allowed  to  waste  all  their 
heat. 

There  are  ways  and  ways  of  doing  things. 


iSo  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Conduits  for  Air=Blasts.  Your  men  at  those  forges 
are  complaining  that  they  do  not  get  the  blast  that 
they  want.  It  would  be  a  wonder  if  they  did,  with 
the  arrangement  of  conduits  that  you  have  to  lead 
the  air  from  the  fan  to  where  it  is  needed.  You  have 
the  fan  rigged  up  in  an  out-of-the-way  corner  where 
the  air-supply  to  it  is  not  very  free;  that  lessens 
somewhat  the  amount  that  will  be  drawn  in  by  the 
blades.  You  must  remember  that  they  are  only 
skimming  the  air  anyhow,  and  if  there  is  not  much 
to  skim  they  will  not  be  able  to  skim  much  from  it 
and  pass  it  where  it  is  needed.  Then  you  have  a 
sort  of  a  wooden  pipe  which  has  been  cobbled  up  of 
almost  anything  in  the  way  of  timber  that  you  had 
about ;  and  it  takes  four  or  five  sharp  turns  horizon- 
tally and  one  or  two  vertically  to  skip  around  and 
over  obstructions  ;  so  that  by  the  time  that  the  first 
outlet  is  reached  there  is  not  much  current  in  the 
pipe.  You  should  note  that  while  air  will  press 
equally  in  every  direction,  no  matter  what  the  shape 
of  the  vessel  that  contains  it,  air-currents  are  differ- 
ent things,  and  require,  in  order  that  they  shall  be 
passed  on  with  minimum  loss  from  friction,  passages 
as  nearly  straight  and  smooth  as  can  be  obtained. 

It  would  have  been  better  for  you  to  have  got  some 
large  tin  pipes,  such  as  are  used  to  carry  hot  air  from 
furnaces  in  houses  where  they  know  what  they  are 
doing.  The  smooth  sides  of  the  tin  would  not  retard 
the  air-currents  and  make  them  lag ;  there  could  be 
easy  curves  and  few  of  them,  and  then  you  would 
have  had  a  good  air-current  delivered  under  pressure 
where  you  wanted  it.  If  you  had  such  a  pipe  as 
yours  to  carry  hot  air  in  your  house  up- town,  you 
would  never  know  whether  there  was  a  fire  in  the 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  181 

furnace  or  not,  except  by  going  down  and  looking  at 
it ;  the  registers  in  your  rooms  would  never  tell  you 
anything  about  it. 

Hollow  Fires.  Where  you  want  an  even  heat,  why 
don't  you  learn  from  your  neighbor  across  the  way, 
and  have  a  hollow  fire  ?  You  have  a  bottom  tuyere. 
Wet  your  coal  well,  pack  it  around  the  inlet  and 
raise  the  walls  as  high  as  you  need  them.  Put  in 
the  kindling  and  fill  the  middle  of  the  ring  with 
loosely-coked  coal  as  high  as  the  walls  are,  and  then 
make  a  dome  roof  over  it,  good  and  thick.  Make 
an  opening  in  front  to  gain  entrance ;  or,  if  you  want, 
have  it  there  before-hand  by  building  over  a  round 
bar  of  iron  and  then  withdrawing  this. 

Hammering  Pentagons.  When  you  want  to  take 
the  conceit  out  of  the  average  blacksmith,  just  ask 
him  to  hammer  out  a  number  of  pieces  of  uniform 
five-sided  section  without  any  dies  or  other  formers. 
It  will  probably  puzzle  him.  But  should  he  succeed 
in  producing  a  regular  pentagon,  you  may  bring  from 
out  of  your  sleeve  another  test  which  will  be  very 
apt  to  finish  him — namely,  the  equilateral  triangular 
section.  Of  course,  the  difficulty  is  that  opposite 
every  side  in  any  piece  having  an  odd  number  of 
sides,  there  is  an  angle  instead  of  a  flat  parallel  side 
to  rest  on  the  anvil,  and  in  the  three- sided  piece  it  is 
worse  than  in  any  other. 

Making  Cylinder=Jackets.  A  cored  cylinder-jacket 
is  not  always  a  very  desirable  thing,  as  one  never 
knows  just  what  the  condition  of  tile  metal  is,  next 
the  core.  It  cannot  be  revealed  by  boring,  as  can 
flaws  in  the  liner  or  cylinder- wall  proper.  Another 
trouble  in  casting  steam-engine  cylinders  is  that  there 


1 82  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

is  nearly  always  a  "pipe  end"  which,  if  made  extra 
long,  so  that  it  can  be  cut  off  leaving  nothing  but 
good  metal  in  the  cylinder,  makes  the  casting  rather 
more  expensive  than  if  no  such  precaution  was  taken. 
A  very  good  thing  which  I  saw  in  the  shops  of  the 
Bollinckx  establishment  in  Brussels,  does  away  with 
both  these  difficulties.  For  Corliss  engines,  of  which 
this  concern  makes  a  specialty,  there  are  two  cast- 
ings made  ;  one  containing  the  cylinder- wall  proper, 
with  the  nozzle,  for  say  the  crank-end  valves,  and  a 
suitable  flange,  and  the  other  for  the  jacket  and  the 
nozzle  for  the  out-end  valves.  The  first  is  turned  off 
and  the  second  bored  out,  and  the  latter  forced  hy- 
draulically  over  the  former  so  that  there  is  an  abso- 
lutely steam-tight  joint  between  the  two ;  and  at  the 
same  time  no  cylinder-flaw  is  possible. 

««  False=Back  "  Couplings.  If  you  have  ever  had  to 
couple  a  2j-inch  hose  to  a  2 -inch  pipe  that  was  fitted 
with  a  regulation  2 -inch  hose-thread,  you  have  prob- 
ably had  to  use  a  ' '  false- back  ' '  female  coupling  ; 
and  this  is  expensive  to  make,  and  unduly  heavy. 
In  the  early  'yo's  I  devised  and  made  in  considerable 
quantity,  and  the  Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute 
illustrated,  a  coupling  in  whic'h  the  two  parts  were 
cast  together  with  a  water-tight  fit.  The  head  was 
first  cast,  and  a  square  groove  turned  in  it ;  this  was 
then  coated  with  black-lead  wash,  set  in  the  mold, 
and  the  shank  cast  in  it.  The  two  parts  being 
chucked  by  the  shank  in  the  lathe,  the  thread  in  the 
head  was  cut ;  then  a  spanner  was  applied  to  the 
head  and  the  lathe  run  slowly,  to  cause  the  shank  to 
turn  in  the  head,  which  it  did,  with  a  water-tight 
fit. 

The   idea   was   so  good  that   a    Providence    firm 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


183 


patented  it,  supposedly  without  knowing  anything  of 
my  having  originated  it,  for  finding  that  I  was  filling 
the  country  with  them,  it  wrote  me  to  stop  it  and 
pay  damages. 

Interchangeable  Pulley-Holding.  There  are  times 
\vhen  the  Lane  &  Bodley  foundry  might  be  mistaken 
for  an  undertaking-establishment,  to  judge  from  a 
number  of  coffin-like  boxes  visible.  But  they  are 
only  core -boxes  used  by  this  concern  in  pulley-mold- 
ing. In  this  foundry  the  pulley-arms  are  formed  by 
cores  and  the  rims  are  swept  up.  The  same  core- 
boxes  are  used  for  several  different  lengths  of  arms ; 


ZEZ 


q 


FIG.  136.— PLAN  AND  SECTION  OF  ARM  CORE-BOXES. 

any  number  of  arms  desired  may  be  given  the  pulley. 
As  shown  in  Figure  136  there  is  a  core-box  forming 
half  an  arm  ;  two  of  these  put  together  make  the  core 
for  a  whole  arm ;  and  six  or  eight  of  these  placed 
around  a  center,  form  the  arms  of  a  pulley.  The 
hub-piece  E  may  be  taken  off  and  replaced  by  one  of 
another  diameter  of  the  same  standard  thickness ; 
each  core-box  has  two  pieces  for  forming  the  web  be- 
tween C  and  Z),  and  two  end-pieces.  For  a  fly-wheel 


184  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

with  square  rim-section,  cores  are  made  in  the  core- 


3PLNDLE 


SWEEP 


FIG.  137. — SECTION  SHOWING  SWEEP  FOR  MAKING  THE  RIMS. 
room,  and  while  they  are  drying  the  molder  sweeps 


FIG.  138.— HUB  PATTERN  WITH  ARM-CORE  IN  PLACE. 
up  a  level  bed  for  them,  using  a  spindle  slipped  into 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


185 


an  iron,  socket.  Figure  137  shows  the  sweep ;  /  being 
the  center  line  of  the  arm,  Fhalf  the  depth  of  the  hub, 
G  the  depth  of  the  core-box  arm,  and  H  half  the  rim- 
depth. 

After  sweeping  up  the  bed,  the  sweep  is  lifted  out 
and  the  hub-pattern  slipped  over  the  spindle  as 
shown  in  Figure  138 ;  the  arm-cores  are  placed  around 
it  at  equal  angular  distances  ;  the  rim-pattern,  which 
is  only  of  a  segment,  is  bolted  to  a  second  sweep  arm 
and  put  in  place  as  in  the  same  Figure ;  then  the  sand 
MNO  is  rammed  up,  the  segment  moved  around,  and 
so  on  until  the  entire  rim  is  molded.  The  check-sand 
M  is  lifted  off,  being  rammed  on  the  lifter-ring  L.  The 
rim-segment  may  then  be  taken  out  and  the  inside  of 


FIG.  139.— WEDGE  FOR  SPLITTING  THE  RIMS. 

the  check  and  the  sand  NO  be  smoothed  up.  After 
removing  the  sweep  F,  a  small  cope  is  made  to  cover 
the  hub,  and  flat  cores  used  to  cover  the  rim. 

If  the  pulley  or  fly-wheel  is  ordered  in  halves  (as 
it  should  be)  rim-lugs  are  bedded  in  the  sand  ;  a  flat 
core  f-inch  thick  is  put  in  the  sand,  cutting  the  hub 
in  two  ;  and  on  this  are  the  cores  for  the  bolt-holes. 
At  the  rim  there  is  a  wrought-iron  wedge  as  shown 
in  Figure  139,  the  lower  end  Q  being  larger  than  the 
upper  end  R,  so  that  if  it  is  driven  towards  Q  it  will 
free  itself  and  not  break  away  the  thin  edge  of  iron  at 


i86 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


the  sides.  This  wedge  is  thicker  at  the  upper  end  S 
than  at  the  lower  end  T.  The  bolt-cores  for  the  rim- 
lugs  are  put  through  the  holes  in  the  wedge  t7,  which 
is  well  painted  with  graphite.  When  the  casting  is 
made  and  cleaned  from  sand,  a  few  smart  blows  on 
the  upper  end  of  the  wedge  splits  the  pulley,  and  the 
break  follows  the  weakest  point,  at  the  bottom  of  the 


FIG.  140. — HUB  PATTERN. 

V  of  the  wedge.    When  the  pulley  is  .fitted  together, 
its  broken  edges  make  a  better  joint  than  if  planed. 

One  set  of  hub-patterns  answers  for  several  pulleys. 
Their  shape  is  shown  in  Figure  140.  The  hubs  are 
hollow  with  loose  tops,  which  may  be  removed  after  the 
hub  is  rammed  up  in  the  sand,  and  the  pins,  which 
hold  the  lugs  F,  with  their  core-prints  Xy  may  be 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  187 

drawn  in  from  the  outside  of  the  hub.  After  the  hub 
is  taken  from  the  sand  the  lug  Y  and  the  splitting 
core-print  W  may  be  drawn  from  this  space.  The 
core-prints  regulating  the  bore-diameter  are  centered 
by  being  slipped  over  the  spindle,  which  also  centers 
the  hub  as  shown  at  Z,  Figure  138. 

Casting  Threads.  About  Centennial  year,  I  was 
called  upon  to  make  some  hose-couplings  10  inches 
in  diameter  for  suction  hose  for  a  pulsometer  that  was 
pumping  out  some  bridge- caissons.  Such  couplings 
had  never  been  made ;  and  as  I  did  not  want  them  to 
cost  any  more  than  was  necessary,  as  it  was  a  rush 
job,  and  I  was  tolerably  certain  that  I  would  never  get 
another  order,  I  cast  about  for  a  plan  to  make  them 
cheap,  and  yet  give  satisfaction.  I  decided  to  cast  the 
threads,  both  male  and  female;  and  this  I  did,  consid- 
ering the  threads  only  as  a  means  of  holding  the  two 
sections  together,  and  relying  on  the  washers  (which 
were  regular  gaskets)  to  make  them  water-tight. 
The  thread  was  four  per  inch,  of  triangular  section. 
( If  I  had  it  to  do  over  again  I  should  make  it  three  per 
inch. )  After  casting,  the  couplings  were  chucked  and 
the  thread  just  cleaned  out  with  a  tool  to  get  the  sand 
out  of  them.  I  had  no  complaint  about  the  coup- 
lings. But  as  to  the  hose  that  went  with  them : — as 
Kipling  says,  "  that  is  another  story,  n  which  I  tell 
elsewhere. 

Casting  Straight-Armed  Pulleys.  There  was  a 
time  when  few  foundries  would  trust  themselves  to 
make  pulleys  with  other  than  curved  and  sometimes 
double-curved  arms ;  the  object  being  to  counteract 
the  cooling-strains,  particularly  where  the  rims  were 
thin.  But  as  pattern-makers  and  molders  got  to 
understand  better  the  laws  of  shrinkage  and  of 


188 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


shrinkage-strains,  it  became  possible  to  make 
pulleys,  the  hubs  of  which  would  not  shrink  so  much 
as  to  draw  away  from  the  arms.  Straight  arms  are 
more  sightly  and  take  less  metal  than  the  curved  ones, 
and  are  now  the  rule. 

Forming  Beads  in  Holds.    There  is  a  device  got  out 


FIGS.  141  AND  142.— FORMING  BEADS  IN  MOLDS. 
by  a  Southerner,  by  which  to  form  beads  in  molds, 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  189 

and  which  should  be  useful  in  foundries  where  water- 
pipes,  gas-pipes,  &c.,  are  cast.  The  mold  rests  on  a 
chill-plate  which  is  bored  to  receive  a  toggle  joint, 
some  links  and  a  crank-plate,  the  sleeve  of  which  lat- 
ter turns  in  a  guide-plate ;  and  through  this  sleeve 
there  slides  a  square  shaft.  There  are  rollers  turning 
on  pivots  which  are  shrunk  in  the  outer  ends  of  the 
toggle  joint,  the  center  of  which  latter  is  connected  to 
the  square  shaft.  Two  or  three  turns  of  the  handle 
form  the  bead. 

How  to  Use  Graphite  Crucibles.  People  melt  faster 
and  faster  now  than  they  used  to,  and  then  complain 
that  their  graphite  crucibles  do  not  last  so  long.  It 
would  be  a  wonder  if  they  did  ;  just  as  it  would  be  a 
wonder  if  the  bearings  of  an  engine  that  ran  sixty 
miles  per  hour  for  three  hundred  and  sixty  miles  a 
day,  would  last  as  many  months  as  when  the  same 
engine  was  running  thirty  miles  per  hour  and  one 
hundred  and  eighty  miles  per  day.  But  to  get  all 
the  durability  or  ( '  life  ' '  out  of  a  crucible  that  there 
is  in.it,  don't  submit  it  when  new  to  the  hottest  fire 
that  it  is  to  have  ;  use  it  for  the  first  several  times  in 
a  new  fire  that  has  not  reached  the  fiercest  stage.  For 
the  highest  heats,  use  old  pots. 

Choice  of  riolding=Loam.  Choose  a  loam  which  is 
free  from  iron  and  from  lime,  magnesia  or  other  alka- 
line matter.  If  you  cannot  get  a  good  natural  mold- 
ing-loam make  one  of  sand  and  clay.  The  alkali  in 
a  poor  loam  will  make  it  too  hard  and  close  and  cause 
the  metal  to  boil. 

Venting  Green=Sand  Holds.  Where  molding-sand 
is  too  strongly  clayey,  green-sand  molds  may  be  im- 
proved by  top- venting  and  side- venting  with  a  wire, 


i9o  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

or  by  the  use  of  ashes  in  the  bottom  ;  and  care  must 
be  taken  not  to  swab  too  freely  before  drawing  the 
pattern. 

Renewing  Molding=Sand.  Founders  often  forget 
that  molding-sand  gets  the  life  burned  out  of  it  and 
requires  to  be  renewed  from  time  to  time.  Facing- 
sand  of  course  helps  to  keep  up  the  strength  or  life, 
but  not  all  that  is  put  into  the  mold  remains  in  the 
sand  ;  part  of  it  is  dissipated  and  part  is  carried  away 
on  the  castings  themselves — besides  which  much  of  it 
gets  out  among  the  ramming-sand  and  in  the  general 
supply.  Of  course  the  constant  addition  of  new  ma- 
terial raises  the  floor-level,  but  it  is  always  easy 
to  get  rid  of  this  excess  of  material.  Experiments 
made  to  use  the  same  sand  over  and  over  again  with- 
out renewal  have  proved  failures ;  scabs  are  sure  to 
appear  as  the  result,  sooner  or  later. 

Coal  for  Facing  can  be  better  ground  in  a  rattle-box 
or  tumbling-barrel  than  in  any  grinding-mill  proper ; 
and  the  regular  rattle-box  which  is  used  to  clean 
castings  answers  just  as  well  as  a  more  expensive  af- 
fair. Put  the  coal  in  with  some  heavy  scrap  iron — 
preferably  in  ball  form,  as  there  will  be  fewer  pieces 
knocked  off.  It  will  take  less  power,  and  you  can 
make  more  in  a  given  space  of  time. 

Venting  Cores.  Where  a  core  cannot  be  vented 
from  the  top,  there  should  be  laid  a  good-sized  pipe 
in  the  mold-bed  just  below  the  position  of  the  core, 
and  the  latter  should  be  well  fastened  down — a  top 
chaplet  answering  in  green  or  dry  sand. 

Where  a  core  is  vented  through  the  side  of  a  mold, 
whether  it  be  a  sand  or  a  loam  mold,  the  core  should 
be  well  fastened  down  by  a  bolt  or  stirrup  where 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  191 

attached  to  the  core-iron,  else  the  kick  back  may  tend 
to  displace  the  core  laterally.  Care  should  be  taken 
in  pouring  to  see  that  the  core- vents  burn  clear  and 
blue,  not  yellow ;  a  yellow  flame  usually  indicating 
that  the  vent  is  stopped  with  metal.  The  yellow 
flame  is  caused  by  metal  reaching  the  chaff,  straw, 
ashes,  coke  or  other  material  in  the  interior  of  the 
core. 

The  colder  the  metal  is  run,  the  more  it  will  need 
venting.  If  it  is  hot  and  lively  it  will  be  able  to 
flatten  itself  against  the  mold- wall,  even  against  the 
pressure  of  the  gases  which  are  trying  to  get  out 
through  the  pores  of  the  core;  but  if  it  is  sluggish, 
there  will  be  much  less  difficulty  in  a  current  of  gas 
making  an  impression  on  the  surface  of  the  metal, 
and  the  result  will  be  a  poor  surface. 

The  use  of  chaff  and  straw  for  venting  cores  has  been 
adopted  for  the  reason  that  they  make  lighter  cores, 
and  that  in  making  them,  it  is  somewhat  easier  to  get 
the  proper  outline  ;  but  the  cores  are  not  quite  so  safe 
as  those  vented  with  ashes.  There  is  more  danger  of 
spoiling  the  casting  by  the  metal  breaking  through, 
with  chaff  or  straw  rope  in  the  inside,  than  with  ashes, 
which  do  not  permit  the  metal  to  get  so  far. 

Coring  Holes  in  Lugs.  Some  shops  which  are  not 
well  fitted  with  boring-apparatus  will  core  holes  in 
lugs,  fins  or  flanges,  instead  of  casting  them  solid  and 
boring  the  holes.  Very  often  in  such  case  the  hole 
will  have  its  sides  blown  by  reason  of  the  cores  not 
having  been  properly  vented,  or  having  been  wet,  or 
for  some  other  reason  the  work  of  coring  being  defec- 
tive. A  defective  place  in  a  lug  having  a  hole  by 
which  a  heavy  piece  is  to  be  lifted,  may  cause  a  seri- 
ous or  even  fatal  accident. 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

CAI  IPO 


i92  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Burning  Together  a  Core=Tube.  Burning  together 
the  two  parts  of  a  broken  core- tube  is  done  by  making 
a  core  of  an  outside  diameter  equal  to  the  inside  diam- 
eter of  the  tube,  and  about  a  foot  long,  sticking  one 
end  of  it  in  each  of  the  two  ends  that  are  to  be  burned 
together,  and  bringing  the  parts  nearly  in  contact  as 
they  are  to  be,  leaving  about  an  inch  between  them  ; 
then  making  a  two-part  outside  mold  with  three  gates 
in  it,  by  which  the  metal  may  be  poured  in  at  one  end 
on  the  top,  through  one  hole  and  run  out  at  the  other; 
then  the  manner  of  pouring  may  be  reversed  and  the 
metal  run  the  other  way.  Two  or  three  such  pour- 
ings and  reversals  will  melt  the  ends  of  the  tube,  and 
they  will  be  found  burned  together  in  a  joint  which  is 
stronger  than  the  original  juncture. 

Straightening  Core=Tubes.  Core-tubes  that  have 
got  bellied  may  be  straightened  by  pening ;  but  it  will 
be  found  that  after  they  have  been  straightened  once 
or  twice,  pening  no  longer  has  any  effect  on  them  ; 
then  the  only  thing  to  do  with  them  is  to  break  them 
in  two  in  the  center,  put  the  two  former  ends  together 
for  a  new  center,  and  burn  them  together. 

Halved  Cores.  In  making  round  cores  in  halves  the 
two  parts  should  be  put  together  with  a  clay  slip  about 
as  thick  as  cream. 

Every  core-box  which  is  made  in  halves  should 
have  some  method  of  insuring  that  the  two  parts  come 
together  exactly  without  leaving  a  step  or  fin.  A 
shoulder  on  one  half,  against  which  the  other  half 
butts,  prevents  this,  but  does  not  keep  the  parts  from 
sliding  lengthwise.  Dowels  with  corresponding  holes 
cost  a  trifle  more,  but  are  more  satisfactory.  Perhaps 
a  shoulder  to  withstand  the  tendency  to  crosswise 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHA  T.  193 

sliding,  and  one  pin  to  keep  the  parts  from  sliding 
lengthwise,  will  be  found  best  for  most  cases. 

For  Sweeping  up  Loam=Cores  on  Barrels,  there 
should  be  a  trestle  having  semicircular  bearings  in 
which  the  core-center  may  be  rotated,  as  journals ; 
then  there  should  be  a  straight-edge,  longer  than  the 
core  is  to  be,  and  having  an  edge  beveled  almost  down 
to  an  absolute  line  ;  this  can  be  used  to  strike  the 
entire  length  of  the  core  at  once  by  turning  the  latter 
in  its  bearings.  If  there  is  no  squared  end  on  the 
core-center,  on  which  to  put  a  crank-handle,  a  handle 
may  be  put  on  by  clamping. 

Removing  Tortuous  Cores.  There  are  places  where 
a  cored  passage  is  very  tortuous,  where  it  is  difficult 
to  get  out  the  cores ;  and  in  such  cases  there  should 
be  left  hand-holes  about  three  inches  in  diameter,  the 
metal  around  which  should  be  of  extra  thickness  (the 
re-inforce  coming  on  the  inside)  so  as  to  prevent  the 
existence  of  these  holes  making  any  likelihood  of  the 
wall  of  the  castings  giving  way  at  this  point ;  and  also 
to  permit  the  holes  to  be  plugged  up  by  shallow  screw- 
plugs  if  this  be  desired. 

(Bollinckx,  of  Brussels,  never  uses  screw-plugs  ;  he 
forces  cylindrical  plugs  in  hydraulically ,  even  in  steam 
cylinder-walls. ) 

About  Core=Sand.  Core-sand  is  the  most  difficult 
material  for  the  founder  to  get  good.  It  requires  to 
be  not  only  porous  but  adhesive.  About  the  best  is 
that  which  has  been  formed  by  the  decay  of  rock  con- 
taining felspar,  but  where  (as  on  a  hill-top)  it  has 
not  had  a  chance  to  get  water- worn,  as  will  be  the 
case  with  sand  found  lower  down.  There  will  also 
be  less  vegetable  matter  in  sand  from  the  top  of  a  hill 


I94  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

than  in  that  from  the  valley  below.  Where  such 
good  natural  core-sand  cannot  be  had,  there  may  be 
used  free  sand  or  pounded  blast-furnace  cinder,  tem- 
pered with  clay,  yeast,  pea-flour  or  horse-dung — but 
it  must  be  remembered  that  any  vegetable  or  animal 
substance  added  to  give  porosity  is  apt  to  cause  boil- 
ing of  the  metal.  Fresh  sand  should  be  used  every 
time  for  cores  ;  old  stuff  will  not  do. 

Core-sand  should  be,  above  all  things,  porous  for 
small  cores  and  for  those  surrounded  by  thin  walls  of 
metal ;  it  must  be  just  as  weak  as  it  can  be  and  be 
handled  and  kept  in  shape.  It  should  be  so  that  it 
can  be  readily  rapped  out  of  a  casting  ;  so  that  on 
tapping  the  casting  with  a  hammer  the  sand  will  run 
out  in  a  stream.  No  matter  what  quality  of  sand  is 
used  for  cores  it  will  be  improved  by  * '  mealing  "  in  a 
rattle-box  or  other  apparatus  which  will  insure  perfect 
mixing.  Some  core-sand  takes  much  more  heat  to 
dry  it  than  others  ;  and  if  this  class  is  not  allowed  to 
be  perfectly  dry  before  using,  it  will  blister  and  scab 
the  face  of  the  casting.  Some  men  get  cleaner  cast- 
ings than  others  just  because  they  use  their  molds  and 
cores  while  hot,  and  for  no  other  reason.  There  is 
greater  necessity  of  this  in  damp  weather  than  in  dry, 
and  in  damp  districts  than  in  dry  ones. 

Confined  cores  are  best  made  of  free  sand  because  it 
is  more  readily  knocked  out  by  reason  of  its  loose 
texture. 

Rock-sand  serves  well  for  short  cores  that  are  held 
at  both  ends  and  which  have  end- vents  ;  but  for  long 
cores  the  effect  of  the  clay  which  it  contains  must  be 
tempered  by  free  sand. 

Core- sand  should  be  much  coarser  than  molding- 
sand,  as  greater  porosity  is  required  of  it ;  and  for  this 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  195 

reason  it  will  not  do  to  mix  old  core-sand  with  the 
molding-sand.  This  being  the  case,  the  old  sand 
which  is  shaken  out  of  the  castings  should  be  kept 
away  from  the  molding-sand. 

One  good  core-sand  mixture  is  ten  parts  of  white 
sand  with  one  of  flour,  and  water  enough  to  make  it 
work  easily.  This  will  do  for  small  round  and  square 
jobbing  work  and  for  where  the  iron  in  pouring  does 
not  strike  the  core. 

The  apprentice  should  be  set  to  work  making  cores 
the  first  thing.  You  will  find  that  almost  every  good 
molder  is  an  exceptionally  good  core-maker ;  care  and 
experience  in  this  line  leading  to  success  in  molding. 

Wooden  Core-Boxes.  I  see  that  you  are  using 
wooden  core-boxes  for  those  round  cores  ;  and  if  you 
will  take  the  trouble  of  inspecting  and  calipering 
those  which  have  been  made  for  a  while  you  will 
find  most  of  them  out  of  round  very  perceptibly ;  the 
wood  having  shrunk  unequally.  Where  a  core-box 
for  round  cores  is  to  be  used  several  times  at  wide  in- 
tervals, it  should  be  of  cast  iron,  which  has  the  habit 
of  keeping  its  shape. 

Another  thing  that  I  notice  in  your  foundry,  is  that 
some  of  the  men  do  not  wet  their  core-irons  with 
clay- water  or  clay-cream  before  putting  them  into  the 
sand.  The  sand  will  not  cling  to  them  well  without. 
And  in  the  large  cores  you  are  using  wrought-iron 
core-irons,  which  cost  much  more  than  cast-iron  ones 
and  are  not  quite  so  good,  not  having  so  many  rough- 
nesses for  the  sand  or  the  clay- wash  to  stick  to.  You 
will  find,  too,  that  you  can  use  ashes  for  the  center  of 
those  large  cores,  serving  the  purpose  of  vent- wires. 

Baggy  Cores.  The  trouble  with  those  cores  is  that 
they  are  "  baggy  "  from  being  heated  too  hot  in  the 


196  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

core-oven  ;  and  they  are  slack  on  the  core-bar  through 
contraction  of  the  core  and  expansion  of  the  core-iron 
taking  place  at  the  same  time.  Those  are  large  cores ; 
and  instead  of  heating  them  so  high  to  dry  them  they 
should  have  been  put  in  the  stove  after  each  couple 
of  courses  of  straw  and  loam.  Made  that  way  they 
will  take  more  time,  but  you  will  have  fewer  spoiled 
cores  and  ruined  castings,  and  it  will  pay  better  in 
the  end. 

Core-Oven  Doors.     The  Straight  L,ine  Kngine  Com- 


_J 


FIG.  143. — CORE-OVEN  DOORS.     (STRAIGHT  LINE  ENGINE  Co.) 

pany  has  its  core-oven  doors  counter- weighted  in  a 
manner  which  insures  both    sides    going    together 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  197 

without  guides,  as  shown  in  Figure  143;  the  ropes 
being  strung  in  as  is  indicated  by  the  numbers. 

Core=Oven  Shelves.  In  the  Cresson  shops  at  Ger- 
inantown  Junction,  Philadelphia,  the  core-oven  is 
cylindrical  and  has  in  the  center  a  vertical  shaft  bear- 
ing circular  shelves  for  the  cores ;  these  shelves  being 
loose  on  the  shaft  so  that  any  one  of  them  may  be 
brought  around  in  front  of  the  door  without  disturb- 
ing the  others.  As  they  rest  on  collars  fastened 
by  set-screws  only,  the  vertical  distances  between 
shelves  may  be  varied  to  suit  the  cores  being  dried. 
The  heat  from  this  oven  is  taken  from  the  brass- 
furnaces  instead  of  being  wasted. 

Core-Oven  Cars.  There  is  rather  a  good  thing  in 
core-ovens  in  the  shops  of  the  Straight  Line  Engine 
Company,  (where  indeed  one  can  get  a  hat-full  of 
wrinkles  in  short  order.)  This  concern  has  a  large 
core-oven  with  four  rails  for  cars,  equal  distances  be- 
tween centers.  There  are  two  cars  half  the  length  of 
the  oven.  They  can  be  set  side  and  side  for  large 


0                0 

0                  0 

^-_r_r^         °                          °          ^-JT 

/  '  /'                    ^^N          O                                                O          /,x 

—  ^           o             o 

""  *"  V^x       °                  ° 

•} 

7       YI  r       ^  v 

V  f 

c 

O             P                                  (a 

^       D  1      - 

v_ 

J                        //    J                         V  \\ 

'  /  X 

FIG.  144. — CORE  OVEN  CARS.    (STRAIGHT  LINE  ENGIXE  Co.) 

square  or  round  cores,  or  end  to  end  on  either  of  three 
places  for  round  cores.  The  journals  are  arranged  to 
run  without  oil.  The  slots  for  the  journals  are  long 
enough  to  permit  the  cars  to  run  twice  the  depth  of 
the  ovens  before  reaching  the  end.  The  wheels  have 


j98  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

the  flanges  outside  the  rails  only,  which  is  all  right 
for  cranes  or  for  cars  of  this  kind,  where  they  run  on 
straight  tracks.  The  inside  flanges,  when  they  hit 
-the  rail  at  all,  are  considered  to  do  more  harm  than 
good. 

Portable  Brass=Furnace.  In  the  Paris  works  of 
Mons.  A.  Piat,  (an  engineer  and  machinist  who  has 
done  more  than  any  other  one  person  to  make  popular 
the  use  of  herring-bone  gears)  they  use  a  portable 
brass-furnace  which  has  several  good  points.  The 
crucibles  are  mounted  firmly  on  a  fire-brick  base  in  a 
wrought-iron  casing  lined  with  fire-clay,  and  mounted 
on  wheels.  In  starting  up,  where  blast  or  strong  draft 
is  desired,  this  portable  furnace  is  set  in  a  chimney 
way ;  but  once  the  melt  is  made  the  whole  affair  is 
brought  to  the  pouring-place,  and  as  the  crucible,  case 
and  all,  is  swung  on  trunnions,  pouring  is  readily 
done,  always  with  hot  metal. 

How  to  Get  Good  Castings.  I  don't  suppose  that 
any  one  could  give  in  ten  minutes  a  treatise  on  the  art 
of  iron-founding ;  but  in  ten  minutes  the  entire  prin- 
ciple of  successful  castings  may  be  stated.  For  in- 
stance, there  your  man  is  making  a  mold  in  which  he 
is  going  to  put  the  runner  in  a  thin  part  instead  of  a 
thick  ;  a  big  u  don't  n  would  be  of  use  to  him  if  he 
would  heed  it.  Then  he  is  going  to  run  the  metal 
in  at  the  top,  although  it  is  a  deep  casting.  The  man 
next  but  one  to  him  is  going  to  run  that  flanged  pipe 
at  a  point  in  the  length  of  the  pipe  instead  of  at  the 
flange ;  and  I  see  that  that  long  thin  branched  piece 
has  been  run  at  one  end  instead  of  from  the  center. 

It  has  not  taken  me  two  minutes  to  point  out  three 
or  four  very  grave  faults  in  your  foundry-practice,  from 
actual  observation  of  bad  work  ;  and  I  believe  that  by 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  199 

going  about  and  seeing  bad  work  in  other  foundries  it 
would  not  take  me  long  to  get  up  rules  which  would 
not  require  ten  minutes  to  pronounce,  but  which  would 
enable  good  work  to  be  done  if  the  men  would  only 
pay  attention  to  them  and  use  their  knowledge-boxes 
more  than  their  tobacco-boxes. 

Cooling=Strains  on  Ring  Castings.  To  see  just  how 
the  cooling-strains  come  on  a  ring  casting,  such  as  is 
used  for  piston-packing  rings,  cut  or  break  a  piece  out 
of  one  and  commence  to  turn  it  down  from  the  outside. 
When  expensive,  and  where  perhaps  there  is  only  one 
casting  to  be  made,  there  may  be  made  a  pattern  like 
the  core  that  is  wanted.  This  may  be  molded  in  the 
sand  with  strengthening-wires  lengthwise  and  cast 
with  a  composition  of  two  parts  of  brick-dust  and  one 
of  plaster  of  paris,  mixed  with  water.  When  this  is 
set  it  should  be  taken  out  of  its  own  mold  in  which  it 
was  made,  and  put  into  the  one  in  which  it  is  to  act 
as  a  core ;  care  being  taken  not  to  let  any  cold  air  get 
to  it. 

Casting  Solid  Iron  Balls.  The  reason  why  a  ball 
cannot  well  be  cast  solid  in  the  center  is  that  it  cools 
first  on  the  outside  next  the  mold,  and  the  metal  in  the 
inside  pulls  away  from  the  core,  towards  the  outside 
layer.  If  the  ball  be  chilled,  the  trouble  is  more  pro- 
nounced than  if  it  is  a  green-sand  casting.  This  mat- 
ter may  be  remedied  somewhat  by  u feeding"  the 
ball  while  in  the  mold,  up  to  the  last  point  at  which 
it  is  possible  to  make  it  take  more  metal. 

Weights  of  Castings.  In  figuring  up  the  weight 
which  a  casting  will  have  there  must  be  considered 
(i)  the  weight  of  the  pattern,  (2)  the  specific  gravity 
of  the  pattern,  and  (3)  the  specific  gravity  of  the 
metal  from  which  it  is  to  be  poured ;  but  this  cannot 


200  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

be  done  if  there  are  core-prints  on  the  pattern.  Where 
there  are  no  core-prints  it  will  usually  be  found  that 
a  cast-iron  casting  will  weigh  14  times  as  much  as  a 
pine  pattern,  13.4  times  as  much  as  one  of  linden 
(bass),  12.8  as  much  as  alder,  12.8  as  much  as  birch, 
10.2  as  much  as  pear,  9.7  times  as  much  as  beech , 
and  9  times  as  much  as  oak.  With  metal  patterns 
cast-iron  castings  will  weigh  about  the  same  as  zinc, 
0.89  as  much  as  tin  with  20  to  25  per  cent,  of  lead, 
0.84  as  much  as  brass,  0.64  as  much  as  lead  ;  while 
an  iron  casting  from  an  iron  pattern  will  weigh  about 
0.97  times  as  much. 

The  flelting-Points  of  the  Metals  differ,  of  course, 
according  to  circumstances  ;  but  the  following  will 
be  found  to  be  fair  averages  and  should  be  kept  for 
reference : 

Deg.  Deg. 

Fahr.     Centigrade. 

Cast  iron  2507  1375 

Gray  pig  iron  2327  1275 

Copper  -  1992  1088.8 

Gold  -  1992  1088.8 

White  pig  iron         -  T9^7  IO75 

Silver  1832  1000 

Zinc  779  415 

Lead  -  630  337.2 

Bismuth  512-6  267 

Tin  451-4  233 

Most  alloys  melt  at  lower  temperatures  than  would 
be  due  to  the  melting-points  of  the  simple  metals  of 
which  they  are  compounded.  Phosphorus  increases 
the  fluidity  of  most  metals ;  sulphur  decreases  it ; 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  201 

zinc  increases  the  fluidity  of  brass,  German  silver  and 
bronze,  and  lead  does  the  same  thing  in  bronze  and 
most  other  tin-alloys. 

Chilled  Castings.  You  seem  to  be  laboring  under 
a  bad  case  of  imperfect  chill,  over  there  in  the  foun- 
dry. If  you  will  try  using  a  little  u  spiegeleisen  n 
you  will  find  that  you  will  get  more  chill  than  you 
now  have;  and  if  what  you  try  does  not  give  enough, 
you  can  try  until  you  .get  what  you  want.  I  have 
seen  chills  eight  inches  deep  at  Gruson's  foundry,  in 
Buckau,  near  Madgeburg,  run  off  as  an  e very-day 
occurrence.  What  they  can  do  there  you  can  do  here. 
You  may  not  want  to  get  eight  inches  of  chill,  as  you 
may  not  be  casting  sections  for  cast-iron  forts  as  they 
were,  but  you  can  get  just  as  much  or  as  little  chill  as 
you  want,  always  bearing  in  mind  that  the  mere  fact 
of  pouring  metal  in  a  chilling-mold  does  not  necessa- 
rily give  a  chilled  casting.  Otherwise  you  could  chill 
lead,  or  anything  you  wanted,  as  hard  as  car- wheel 
treads  or  lathe- tools. 

Casting  Flange  Pipe,  with  the  ends  faced  true  and 
the  bolt-holes  cored,  was  done  some  time  ago  at 
the  Straight  Line  Engine  Go's.  Works.  The  ends 
were  cast  against  a  chill.  The  pattern  differed  from 
the  ordinary  pipe-pattern  in  having  movable  flanges 
to  suit  different  lengths,  and  in  having  core-prints 
the  full  size  of  the  flanges  instead  of  the  size  of  the 
bore.  The  flask  was  of  the  ordinary  iron  sort,  having 
ends  adjustable  at  intervals  of  a  couple  of  inches,  and 
with  openings  in  the  ends  equal  to  the  size  of  the 
core-prints.  The  core-bar  was  an  inch  or  two 
smaller  than  the  pipe-bore,  having  circular  flanges  or 
collars  one  and  one-half  or  two  inches  apart,  and  four 
ribs  throughout  its  length.  These  ribs  were  turned 


202  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

true  and  to  a  given  size,  and  on  the  bar  were  fitted 
two  chills  set  in  any  position  to  suit  the  length  of 
pipe  desired.  The  faces  were  recessed  to  form  a  fac- 
ing for  the  packing  on  the  finished  pipe,  and  as 
many  holes  as  there  were  to  be  bolt-holes  in  the 
flange  were  bored  clear  through  the  chill,  accurately 
spaced  and  reamed  slightly  tapering.  The  outsides 
of  the  chills  were  turned  to  the  same  size  as  the  prints 
on  the  pattern,  except  that  there  was  left  on  the  out- 
side a  small  projection  about  one-eighth  inch  high. 
The  chills,  when  on  the  bar,  formed  journals  so  that 
when  rested  in  proper  bearings  the  core-bar  might  be 
rotated.  Common  molding-sand  was  used  for  the 
core,  and  when  swept  up  it  was  trued.  When  the 
flask  was  rammed  up  and  the  pattern  removed,  both 
ends  were  open  to  the  full  size  of  the  flange.  When 
the  core  was  set  the  chills  closed  up  the  ends  except 
the  holes  for  the  bolt-cores ;  and  the  projecting  V 
ribs  pressed  into  the  sand  and  made  a  stop  to  keep 
the  iron  from  running  out.  Cores  of  the  size  of  the 
bolt-holes  and  three  or  four  inches  long  were  passed 
through  the  chills  until  they  struck  the  green  sand, 
so  that  when  the  pipes  were  cast  the  bolt-holes  were 
more  nearly  perfect  than  the  ordinary  drilled  holes. 
The  bolt-hole  cores  were  made  in  blocks  like  the 
cylinder  of  a  revolver,  in  which  the  cores  were  made 
and  baked. 

Painting  Iron  Stacks.  It  is  a  problem  which  comes 
to  alipost  every  shop-owner  some  time  or  other,  how  to 
paint  an  iron  stack — particularly  if  it  is  a  light  one 
and  not  very  well  guyed.  The  difficulty  is  sometimes 
increased  by  the  stack  being  hot  at  the  time  of  paint- 
ing ;  but  that  is  more  a  matter  of  detail  with  the  paint 
and  brushes  if  the  mechanical  details  are  right. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


203 


Planting  ladders  against  the  stack  itself  is  usually 
out  of  the  question  ;  the  rope-ladder  business  is  not 
always  effective  even-if  there  are  hand-holds  to  enable 
one  to  get  to  the  top  ;  and  scaffolding  costs  too  much 
to  be  considered  for  a  minute. 

The  rig  here  rudely  outlined  consists  of  a  ladder  a 
little  longer  than  the  stack  is  high,  a  stout  rope  about 
three  times  as  long  as  the  ladder  ;  two  stakes  to  keep 
the  ladder  from  slipping  at  the  foot,  a  stout  board  for 
the  painter  to  stand  on  (or  an  old  arm-chair  without 


FIG,  145. — RIG  FOR  PAINTING  IRON  STACKS. 

any  legs  will  answer  if  it  is  well  wired  together)  and 
a  rope  by  which  to  suspend  the  plank  or  chair.  It  is 
desirable  to  have  two  f|  -shaped  bails  by  which  to 
hang  the  plank,  one  at  each  end. 

The  ladder  is  planted  so  that  its  top  will  come 
about  two  feet  from  the  stack,  when  the  strain  is  on 
it  by  reason  of  the  weight ;  the  guy-rope  controlling 
that.  The  hight  of  suspension  of  the  plank  or  chair 
is  regulated  by  the  painter  himself,  the  rope'  playing 


204  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

freely  on  the  top  rung  of  the  ladder  ;  or  there  may  be 
a  pulley-block  at  each  end  if  desired. 

At  each  planting  of  the  ladder,  .about  one-quarter 
to  one-third  of  the  stack  may  be  reached  by  the  paint- 
er ;  after  that  the  ladder  must  be  shifted. 

As  regards  the  paint  used — there  are  several  com- 
positions sold  for  that  purpose  ;  and  some  use  coarse 
black-lead,  just  such  as  is  used  for  stove- polish,  mixed 
up  with  turpentine  and  oil  ;  or  paint  first  with  tar 
and  then  rub  in  black-lead. 

How  To  Paint  Iron  Work.  That  man  who  is  paint- 
ing those  bridge-sections  should  have  his  brush  full 
of  paint  slapped  across  his  face  as  a  reminder.  He  is 
doing  work  that  will  fail  and  be  to  your  discredit. 
He  has  not  taken  off  the  scale  and  rust,  as  he  should 
have  done,  with  a  stiff  wire  scratch- brush.  As  the 
paint  is  only  to  preserve  the  work  in  shipment  it 
would  be  better  not  to  use  paint  at  all,  but  to  swab  the 
pieces  with  linseed  oil  and  then  work  it  in  well  with 
a  stiff  brush.  The  little  pieces  might  be  soaked  in 
boiled  oil. 

Anti-Rust  Compound  for  Bright  Work.  So  you  are 
going  to  close  the  establishment  for  awhile  until  these 
labor  troubles  are  over?  Well,  no  one  knows  how 
long  that  will  be.  You  might  as  well  make  provision 
for  not  having  the  engines  and  machinery  rust.  Smear 
the  bright  places  with  a  mixture  of  one  ounce  of  gum- 
camptor,  melted  in  a  pound  of  lard,  with  a  little  black- 
lead. 

Hardness  vs.  Toughness.  There  is  one  thing  that 
machinists  .and  other  mechanics  should  learn,  and 
which  not  one  in  twenty  ever  has  learned  ;  that  there 
is  a  difference  between  hardness  and  toughness,  and 
that  while  a  cutting- tool  may  not  be  tough  enough  % 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  205 

or  may  be  properly  designed  and  made,  it  cannot  be 
too  hard  ;  and,  in  fact,  no  tool  was  ever  yet  made  that 
was  really  hard  enough.  The  fact  that  a  tool  crumbles 
or  breaks  is  no  indication  that  it  is  too  hard  ;  but  is 
merely  an  indication  that  it  is  too  brittle,  or  that  for 
a  given  degree  of  brittleness  it  has  been  given  the 
wrong  lines,  or  presented  at  a  wrong  angle  to  the  work, 
or  that  the  work  has  been  given  the  wrong  speed. 
Or,  what  is  less  often  considered,  the  material  may 
have  been  so  worked  that  its  grain  runs  in  the  wrong 
direction ;  and  any  flaw  which  if  axial  would  do  no 
injury  or  would  be  expected  and  provided  for,  might 
be  presented  at  an  angle  to  the  length  of  the  tool,  and 
thus  permit  it  to  be  damaged.  But  taking  all  things 
into  consideration,  designing  the  tool  properly  in  the 
first  place,  then  making  it  from  steel  that  has  not  been 
worked  askew,  and  next  using  it  properly  in  the  ma- 
chine or  elsewhere,  there  is  no  extra  degree  of  hard- 
ness that  will  not  be  desirable  and  profitable. 

Warping  of  Long  Tools.  There  is  much  trouble 
with  the  warping  or  the  twisting  of  long  tools,  such 
as  taps  and  reamers,  in  hardening  and  tempering.  If 
you  can  so  manage  it  as  to  retain  a  soft  center  there 
will  be,  or  need  be,  but  little  difficulty  in  overcoming 
the  warp.  This  is  at  least  true  of  the  large  ones, 
which  have  a  larger  proportion  of  soft  core  than  those 
of  smaller  cross-section.  With  these  last,  as  indeed 
in  all,  it  is  well  to  be  sure  that  you  lower  the  tool 
perfectly  squarely  into  the  quenching-bath,  so  that  the 
heat  will  be  absorbed  equally  from  all  sides  ;  and  this 
tendency  will  be  increased  if  you  will  try  to  lower  the 
tool  as  far  as  you  can  in  the  center  of  the  bath. 

If  this  is  true  of  the  hardening-bath,  it  is  equally  so 
of  the  heating-bath,  where  melted  lead  or  other  liquid 


206  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

is  used  for  heating.  There  will  be  no  use  in  taking 
the  trouble  to  cool  a  tool  equally,  if  it  has  been  heated 
unequally.  For  this  reason,  tools  should  be  immersed 
squarely  and  centrally  into  the  heating-bath,  and 
turned  around ;  and  the  turning  process  will  also  be 
found  desirable  in  quenching. 

Tempering  Steel  by  Gas.  Those  who  use  a  gas- 
burner  for  tempering  steel  should  remember  that  there 
are  parts  of  the  flame  which  are  about  ten  times  as 
hot  as  others  ;  and  it  would  be  well  to  note  where  these 
parts  are  for  each  particular  burner,  in  order  to  save 
time  in  making  mis-heats.  A  piece  of  an  arc-light 
carbon  serves  excellently  well  as  an  indication,  noting 
the  time  required  to  heat  it  to  a  given  color  and  in 
various  parts  of  the  flame,  with  the  gas-cock  open  a 
given  distance  ;  or,  what  is  better  yet,  as  the  pressure 
in  the  pipe  varies  according  to  the  time  of  the  day 
and  the  demand  for  gas,  with  the  flame  always  at  a 
given  hight,  which  will  assure  a  practically-constant 
gas-consumption. 

Where  a  piece  is  of  several  diameters  or  thicknesses 
in  various  portions,  and  an  even  hardness  is  desired 
all  over,  it  will  be  well,  where  possible,  to  put  the 
largest  parts  in  those  portions  of  the  flame  which 
your  experience  has  shown  to  be  the  hottest ;  and 
the  same  knowledge  may  be  made  use  of  where  the 
temper  is  desired  to  be  harder  in  some  parts  than  in 
others. 

To  hold  small  articles,  as  drills,  which  are  to  be 
hardened  in  a  gas  flame,  it  is  well  to  make  yourself 
some  self-closing  pincers  of  wire,  giving  the  wire  one 
or  more  turns  at  what  will  be  the  pivot  or  center  of 
opening,  and  flattening  it  out  on  both  parallel  ends, 
with  the  flat  of  one  end  at  right  angles  to  that  on  the 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  207 

othei  ;  then  filing  a  few  nicks  in  that  one  of  the 
flattened  ends  which  meets  the  other  edgewise,  you 
will  be  able  to  hold  with  firmness  any  small  cylindri- 
cal article  which  will  enter  the  nick. 

Blazing  off  Springs.  Cottonseed  oil  will  be  found 
a  desirable  medium  for  blazing  off  springs.  For 
some  work  a  mixture  of  this  and  fish  oil  is  preferable 
to  either  of  the  two  oils  alone.  Experience  alone 
with  each  class  of  work  will  determine  just  which  oil 
or  what  proportion  of  a  mixture  of  the  two  to  use. 

Hardening  TooUSteel.  If  you  buy  tool-steel  from  a 
reputable  maker,  and  receive  with  it  instructions  or 
advice  to  harden  it  at  a  low  red  or  any  other  tempera- 
ture or  condition,  take  the  advice.  That  manufac- 
turer is  interested  in  making  his  particular  steel  do 
good  service,  so  that  he  shall  get  your  continued 
orders.  There  are  reasons  which  you  cannot  explain, 
and  which,  perhaps,  the  makers  of  the  steel  cannot  ex- 
plain, either  why  two  steels  for  the  same  purpose 
require  to  be  hardened  at  different  temperatures  and 
colors  ;  you  had  better  accept  the  fact  and  make  the 
most  money  you  can  out  of  it.  In  the  same  way  if 
you  buy  emery-wheels  of  a  certain  brand,  and  are 
recommended  to  use  soft  free- cutting  wheels  for  one 
job  and  hard  wheels  for  another,  take  the  maker's 
advice.  Each  maker  wants  to  get  his  wheels  to  re- 
move as  many  ounces  of  metal  for  you,  with  a  given 
expenditure  of  time  and  power,  as  is  possible ;  and 
most  of  the  large  establishments  have  made  experi- 
ments which  enable  them  to  tell  what  their  wheels 
will  do  and  what  they  will  not  do.  You  should  also 
take  the  advice  of  emery-wheel  makers  about  the 
speeds  at  which  to  run  their  wheels.  I  do  not  carry 
this  into  the  domain  of  saws,  because  often  the 


ao8  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

makers  of  saws  are  too  confident  or  too  timid.  They 
have  not  the  facilities  for  knowing  what  speeds  of  ro- 
tation and  feed  will  do  the  best  service  ;  no  saws  are 
made  in  the  lumber  regions,  and  few  even  near  them. 
But  when  it  comes  to  emery-wheels,  nearly  all  of  them 
are  made  right  within  the  reach  of  machine-shops 
which  use  them,  and  they  are  in  position  to  hear  com- 
plaints very  quickly  and  to  investigate  their  causes 
and  apply  or  suggest  the  remedies. 

Hardening  Cutters.  Cutter-bits  to  be  used  in  tool- 
holders  in  lathes  should  be  regularly  hardened  when 
they  get  soft  at  their  lower  end.  It  is  an  easy  mat- 
ter to  lay  them  one  side  when  they  get  a  bit  soft ; 
then  when  enough  of  them  are  ready  to  be  hardened 
they  can  be  put  into  a  small  oven  and  heated  a  dull 
red ;  the  end  of  each  then  plunged  into  a  perforated 
iron  box,  the  bottom  of  which  is  covered  with  just  the 
required  depth  of  water  to  harden  them  as  far  up  as 
it  is  desired  that  they  should  be.  Next  they  go  to  the 
grindstone  to  be  ground  and  given  out  with  the  new 
cutters.  Steel  of  high  quality  for  such  cutters 
should  be  kept  out  of  the  smith's  fire. 

Hardening  Small  Saws,  such  as  are  used  for  slot- 
ting screw-heads,  should  not  be  difficult,  and  is  best 
effected  by  pressing  them  between  two  thick  well-oiled 
cold  slabs,  as  of  cast-iron. 

Deforming  Dies  in  Hardening.  In  hardening,  steel 
drop-dies  usually  turn  out  bulging  in  the  center  by 
reason  of  the  strain  which  unequal  cooling  produces 
in  them. 

There  are  two  ways  of  getting  around  this — one  to 
grind  out  the  bulge,  and  the  other  to  make  allowance 
for  it  beforehand,  by  leaving  in  the  face  a  sink  about 
to  the  extent  of  the  expected  bulge.  This  latter 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  209 

way  is  for  some  reasons  not  so  good  as  the  first— 
partly  because  it  requires  that  one  make  two  or  more 
sets  of  dies  of  the  same  size  before  learning  the  amount 
of  bulge  to  provide  for.  But  the  grinding  has  the  dis- 
advantage that  it  removes  the  skin  of  the  die,  which 
is  the  best  part,  and  leaves  it  with  its  surface  of  un- 
equal hardness — usually  softer  where  it  has  been 
ground  away  than  elsewhere,  and  if  it  has  been 
ground  all  over,  but  more  in  the  center  than  at  the 
edges,  it  will  be  of  varying  hardness  all  the  way 
across.  This  difference  in  the  hardness  may  be  in- 
creased by  too  rapid  grinding  or  too  hard  a  wheel, 
drawing  the  temperature  of  the  die  by  the  heat  of  the 
wheel. 

The  only  advantage  of  the  bulging-in  dies  is  the 
less  liability  of  their  being  broken  if  carelessly  allowed 
to  come  together  with  nothing  between  them. 

Straightening  Warped  Pieces.  Too  much  hammer- 
ing will  make  a  saw-blade  lose  its  elasticity ;  but  it 
may  be  made  elastic  again  without  re-hardening  by 
re-heating  to  a  spring  temper.  This  principle  may  be 
employed  for  other  kinds  of  articles. 

Hardening  Around  a  Hole.  Ring  gages  and  such 
like  should  be  hard  around  the  hole  and  soft  elsewhere. 
This  may  be  done  by  clamping  them  between  flanges 
on  the  ends  of  tubes  through  which  cold  water  or  brine 
is  circulated  ;  the  water  hardens  the  walls  of  the  hole 
out  as  far  as  the  inside  edges  of  the  flanges. 

Over-Hard  Tap-Blanks.  Where  a  tap-blank  that 
lias  been  supposed  to  be  annealed  enough  for  thread- 
cutting  proves  too  hard,  from  improper  annealing  or 
from  not  knowing  the  nature  of  the  steel  or  of  the 
"heat,  it  is  usually  better  in  every  way  to  anneal  it 
over  again,  than  to  go  on  and  wear  out  tools  and 


2io  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

lose  temper,  cutting  the  thread  on  the  too  hard 
material.  It  will  often  be  best  to  turn  it  up  rough, 
and  to  clean  out  the  centers,  before  the  second 
annealing. 

Temperature-Gage  for  Steel.  In  order  to  show  just 
how  hot  steel  is  that  is  being  annealed  in  a  muffle  or 
box,  supply  some  one-fourth  inch  rods,  which  may  be 
pulled  out  from  time  to  time  to  test  the  temperature. 

To  Blue  Steel  without  heating,  apply  nitric  acid  ; 
then  wipe  off  the  acid,  clean,  oil  and  burnish. 

Working- Lines  on  Steel  Pieces.  Instead  of  blueing 
those  steel  pieces  by  heat  in  order  to  permit  the  lines 
marked  on  them  to  be  plainly  seen,  it  would  be  much 
better  if  you  would  copper  the  surface  by  rubbing  it 
with  a  saturated  solution  of  sulphate  of  copper  (blue 
vitriol ;  blue-stone)  which  will  coat  the  surface  with 
a  very  thin  film  of  pure  copper.  If  the  surface  is 
greasy  or  unfinished,  a  few  drops  of  sulphuric  acid  to 
the  ounce  of  solution  will  make  it  work  all  right. 

Malleable  Castings.  The  reason  why  you  are  not 
able  to  make  good  malleable-iron  castings  is  that  you 
are  too  new  in  the  business.  It  would  be  cheaper  for 
you  to  get  your  castings  of  that  sort  made  by  those 
who  have  been  in  the  business  a  good  while  and  have 
a  good  reputation  in  that  line.  Their  experience  has 
been  paid  for  long  ago  ;  you  will  not  have  to  pay  for 
it  when  you  order  castings  from  them.  In  the  early 
days  of  such  work,  when  the  malleable-iron  foundries 
lost  about  one  out  of  every  three  pieces  that  they 
made,  the  purchaser  paid  for  the  spoiled  ones, 
whether  he  thought  that  he  did  or  not ;  and  probably 
he  paid  for  some  that  were  not  yet  spoiled  but  which 
might  be  at  the  next  run,  or  at  some  other  run  in  the 
future.  But  you  are  now  paying  for  the  spoiled  ones 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  211 

that  you  make.  If,  however,  you  will  insist  on  keep- 
ing on  trying  until  you  get  matters  right,  you  should 
use  pig  that  is  very  free  from  both  phosphorus  and 
sulphur  ;  should  melt  it  in  crucibles  of  from  fifty  to 
one-hundred  pounds  capacity,  away  from  the  air; 
and  should  pour  it  when  it  is  hot  enough  for  a  drop 
of  it,  taken  out  on  an  iron  bar,  to  burn  when  exposed 
to  the  oxygen  of  the  external  air.  As  to  the  cement- 
ation, there  is  not  much  mystery  about  it,  it  is  more  a 
question  of  judgment  as  to  how  long  to  keep  the 
pieces  in  the  oxide  of  iron  ;  the  proper  temperature, 
etc.  To  find  out  how  long  and  how  hot,  you  will 
have  to  pay  for  the  experience. 

Annealing  Steel  in  Open  Fire.  While  annealing  of 
steel  is  best  done,  perhaps,  by  the  regular  charcoal 
packing,  there  are  cases  (as  in  break-down  jobs) 
where  this  cannot  be  resorted  to ;  and  then  the  ma- 
chinist will  be  surprised  if  he  tries  it,  how  well  he 
can  do  by  simply  heating  in  an  open  charcoal  fire  to 
a  dull  red,  letting  cool  down  naturally  so  that  the  red 
will  not  show  even  in  the  dark,  and  then  quenching 
in  cold  water. 

To  Soften  White  or  Silver  Iron  so  that  it  may  be 
drilled  or  chipped,  put  it  into  a  steel-furnace  or  other 
con  verting- furnace  together  with  a  suitable  quantity 
of  irons  tone,  iron-ore,  some  of  the  metallic  oxides,  lime 
or  any  other  combination  of  these  substances  reduced 
to  powder,  or  any  other  substances  capable  of  com- 
bining with  or  absorbing  the  carbon  of  the  crude  iron. 
The  more  or  the  longer  the  heat  is  applied,  the  more 
nearly  malleable  the  iron  will  become. 

Draftsman's  Templates.  Mr.  Ware,  head  of  the  die 
department  of  the  Ferracute  Works,  has  many  kinks 
which  facilitate  the  rapid  production  of  sketches  in  his 


2 1 2  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

department.  Among  them  is  a  cardboard  template 
representing  a  flat-headed  bolt,  full  size,  the  notches 
for  the  threads  being  sharply  cut  so  that  they  may  be 
followed  (first  the  lines  from  right  to  left  and  then 
those  from  left  to  right)  by  a  pencil  point.  He  has 
several  of  these,  of  several  sizes,  representing  several 
sizes  of  bolts  to  full  scale ;  and  they  come  in  very 
handy  in  sketching. 

Handy  for  Draftsmen.  Some  of  the  handiest  little 
wrinkles  are  least  used  by  draftsmen.  I  mention 
two  that  I  came  across  the  other  day,  both  of  them 
convenient  and  neither  of  them  generally  known. 

The  first  is  an  arrangement  for  rubbing  out  a  single 
line  or  portion  of  a  line  without  interfering  with  any 
other.  It  consists  simply  of  a  slit  one-sixteenth  inch 
wide,  cut  in  a  piece  of  hard  cardboard,  thus : — 


FIG.  146. — ERASING  CARD. 

This  is  used  in  connection  with  an  india  rubber  or 
ink-eraser.  The  edges  of  the  slit  protect  the  adjacent 
lines. 

The  other  is  the  use  of  an  ordinary  u  medicine- 
dropper  ' '  (such  as  is  used  for  filling  stylographicpens) 
for  loading  drawing-pens.  The  device  is  very  simple 
— simply  a  glass  tube  with  a  fine  dropping-point,  and 
a  rubber  bulb.  It  keeps  the  ink  from  drying,  does 
not  clog  up,  may  be  carried  in  the  pocket  if  the  point 
is  tipped  with  a  rubber  cork,  and  saves  time  and  ink. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


213 


Gear-Tooth  Scriber.  The  late  Mr.  A.  B.  Couch,  of 
the  Industrial  Works,  Philadelphia,  brought  to  rny 
notice  (in  one  of  many  visits  in  each  of  which  I  was 
indebted  to  him  for  some  new  and  good  idea)  a  scri- 
ber  by  which  to  outline  epicycloid  teeth  for  drawings 
or  for  templates.  As  shown  in  Figure  147  a  portion 
of  a  wheel-pattern  representing  the  generating-circle 


FIG.  147. — GEAR-TOOTH  SCRIBER. 

has  a  scribing-piece  P,  dovetailed  with  its  marking- 
point  exactly  in  the  circumference,  which  is  draw- 
filed  to  prevent  slipping.  This  same  wheel  will 
draw  racks,  internal  gears  or  external  gears,  accord- 
ing as  it  is  rolled  on  a  straight-edge,  the  external  cir- 
cumference of  a  solid  circle,  or  the  internal  circum- 
ference of  a  circular  ring. 

Gripping  T  Square.  In  the  Ferracute  Works'  draw- 
ing-room they  employ  T  squares,  having  a  spring 
clamping-edge,  which  grips  a  raised  strip  of  rectangu- 
lar cross- section  on  the  left-hand  edge  of  the  drawing- 
board  and  enables  the  draftsman  to  use  both  hands 
for  his  triangle  and  pen. 


2i4  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Trammels  may  be  made  better  with  round  tubing 
instead  of  a  rectangular  rod,  for  a  beam,  and  the 
heads  may  have  compression-rings  set  up  by  taper 
screws,  so  that  there  will  be  no  need  of  set-screws. 
In  fact,  if  the  work  is  good  enough,  there  need  be  lit- 
tle or  no  necessity  of  any  clamping-device  to  keep  the 
heads  in  their  relatively  proper  position.  No  one  ever 
thinks  of  requiring  a  clamp  or  other  fastening-device 
on  a  pair  of  six-inch  dividers  or  compasses;  why 
should  trammels  need  one  ? 

The  ««  Hyperbolograph."  Well,  after  you  have  got 
it  up,  of  what  earthly  use  will  it  be  to  you  or  to  any 
one  ?  How  many  people  in  this  world  do  you  think 
are  lying  awake  at  nights  worrying  about  where  they 
can  buy  a  machine  which  will  draw  a  hyperbola  with 
mathematical  exactness  ?  How  many  did  you  ever 
have  to  draw  ?  How  many  do  you  expect  to  draw  ? 
And  don't  you  know  that  you  can  lay  one  out  with  a 
pair  of  dividers  and  a  parallel  ruler  in  less  time  than 
you  could  rig  up  your  ' '  hyperbolograph  ' '  to  do  the 
same  work?  Cui  bono  is  a  good  thing  to  remember 
in  mechanics. 

For  Section-Lining  Small  Drawings,  Mr.  J.  W. 
Payler,  of  Detroit,  uses  a  small  scrap  from  a  slotting 


FIG.  148. — WEIGHT  FOR  HOLDING  DRAWINGS. 

job,  as  shown  in  Figure  148,  frosted,  and  then  sup- 
plied with  four  very  slightly  raised  points  made  by  a 
sharp  chisel  so  that  the  block  shall  hold  the  paper, 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  215 

but  not  go  through  it.  This  being  set  to  the  angle 
required,  he  places  against  it  a  taper  scale  made  from 
a  six- inch  section  of  a  broken  two-foot  rule ;  some- 
times rising  at  each  one-sixteenth  inch  advance 
against  the  corners  of  the  weight,  one  one-hundredth 
of  an  inch,  or  according  to  need. 

Handy  Triangles.  The  Ferracute  people  use  in 
their  drawing-room  large  triangles  having  cut  in 
them  some  outlines  which  they  have  to  reproduce 
often  in  their  rough  sketches — as  for  instance,  the 
heads  of  "  hex  "  bolts,  the  conventional  representa- 
tion of  screw-threads,  etc. 

Holding  Large  Drawings  on  the  Board.  Since  go- 
ing through  the  Pennsylvania  Railway  shops  at  Al- 
toona,  a  number  of  years  ago,  I  have  given  up  the  old 
barbarism  of  holding  large  drawings  on  the  board  by 
glue  or  by  drafting- tacks,  and  have  used  small  copper 
tacks  (about  the  ' l  one-ounce  '  '  size)  as  being  cheaper 
and  more  convenient  to  insert  and  take  out,  and  as 
offering  no  obstruction  to  the  passage  of  the  T 
square  and  the  triangle ;  besides  which  they  have  not 
the  habit,  as  some  have,  of  coming  up  into  one's 
thumb  (whence  the  name  of  c  *  thumb-tacks ' '  I  sup- 
pose) on  being  pressed  into  a  hard  board. 

But  in  the  Brown  &  Sharpe  drawing-rooms,  where 
I  knew  that  they  had  also  been  using  for  some  time 
the  ordinary  copper  tacks,  I  saw  something  which 
they  say  is  better  yet,  and  which  for  many  things  is 
supplanting  the  copper  tack.  They  use  small 
slips  of  gummed  paper  about  three- fourths  of  an  inch 
or  an  inch  long  and  one- fourth  of  an  inch  wide,  (prob- 
ably suggested  by  the  short  strips  on  the  edge  of  a 
sheet  of  post  age- stamps,  when  one  is  lucky  enough  to 
get  stamps  with  some  "stick' em"  on  them)  and 


2i6  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

these  rnaKe  as  firm  a  connection  as  is  desired  between 
the  edge  of  the  drawing  or  tracing  and  the  board. 

I  think  that  it  was  in  1866  that  I  first  learned  to 
revile  the  memory  of  the  inventor  of  the  system  of 
'  *  double  elephant ' '  size  of ' '  egg-shell ' '  paper  (usual- 
ly mounted  on  muslin)  glued  tight  to  the  board. 
When  a  drawing  was  put  under  way  there  was  always 
a  margin  of  about  one  and  one-half  inches  around  al- 
lowed for  the  gluing,  and  then  about  another  inch  or 
inch  and  a-half  inside  that,  there  came  a  marginal 
line  which  it  was  the  correct  thing  to  make  double, 
with  corner  pieces  of  greater  or  less  complication. 
The  outer  inch  and  a-half  of  width  we  used  for  try- 
ing our  drawing-pens,  etc.;  this  part  having  the  ad- 
vantage that  it  was  exactly  the  same  quality  as  the 
surface  on  which  we  were  to  work.  Thank  Heaven 
those  days  have  passed  away,  and  with  them  the 
three- fourths-inch  German  silver  "thumb-tack." 

Sketching=Pads.  You  will  find  that  the  work  of 
getting  up  ordinary  sketches  of  machines  and  other 
work  will  be  very  much  facilitated  by  having  pads  of 
paper  faint-ruled  in  inch  squares,  sub-divided  into  one- 
eighth  or  one-tenth-inch  squares.  In  repair- work 
many  a  job  can  be  indicated  better  in  this  way  than 
by  a  finished  drawing  ;  and  in  altering  machines  also, 
where  the  full  lines  of  the  original  drawing  would  be 
useless  as  indicating  processes  and  measurements  that 
are  through  with,  the  mere  sketch  outlines,  upon  paper 
ruled  to  one-eighth-inch  or  one-tenth-inch  squares 
would  appeal  at  once  to  the  eye  of  the  workman,  and 
not  confuse  him  with  a  mass  of  detail  upon  which  some 
other  workman  had  been  engaged  years  ago,  and  upon 
which  no  other  workman  will  ever  be  engaged  again 
while  it  exists. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  217 

Drawings  for  the  Shop.  In  a  recent  example  of  shop- 
drawings,  published  as  a  guide  for  mechanics  and 
draftsmen,  are  some  very  glaring  faults  in  minor 
matters. 

In  the  first  place  the  dimension-numbers  are  so  badly 
made  that  many  of  them  are  nearly  indistinguishable. 
It  is  true  that  the  original  had  been  reduced  from  "14 
x  1 8  "  to  about  4 1  by  something  or  other ;  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  to  the  sight  of  many  workmen  who 
have  not  on  their  glasses  they  are  blurred,  and  to  many 
near-sighted  persons  who  have  on  concave  glasses,  they 
appear  as  small  as  they  seem  on  the  printed  page 
mentioned,  to  persons  with  normal  vision.  Some  of 
the  fives  look  like  o's,  some  of  the  nines  ditto ;  there 
is  a  iH  in  the  upper  left-hand  corner  which  might  be 
ifi  with  a  very  little  imagination  or  very  trifling  vis- 
ual defect ;  (and  perhaps  it  really  is  ifi  and  looks  like 
iii!)  Introducing  hyphens  or  short  dashes  between 
words,  and  drawing  lines  under  them,  makes  them 
much  less  legible  than  if  they  were  not  separated  and 
underscored;  and  the  lines  of  capitals  are  not  so  distinct 
as  u  upper  and  lower  case  n  would  be.  The  example 
shows  mongrel  lettering  and  numbering,  although  the 
text  calls  for  ' '  full-face  Gothic. ' '  I  think  that  drafts- 
men, pattern-makers  and  machinists  prefer  "  dot  and 
dash' '  center  lines  to  the  full  ones  given  in  the  sample 
drawing.  Full  lines  for  outlines  of  visible  parts  and  for 
most  hatchings,  dotted  lines  for  parts  back  of  those 
which  are  seen,  dot  and  dash  lines  for  centers,  and 
broken  lines  for  long  dimension-lines,  seem  to  have 
been  accepted  by  most  draftsmen,  and  to  be  under- 
stood by  most  machinists,  blacksmiths  and  pattern- 
makers the  world  over  ;  and  as  the  growing  use  of  the 
blue-print  for  shop  use  precludes  very  largely  the 


2i8  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

employment  of  color,  solid  red  for  center-lines  and 
various  tints  to  represent  various  materials  seem  obso- 
lete practice.  The  Pennsylvania  railroad  and  many 
other  establishments  have  standard  hatchings  to  rep- 
resent certain  materials  ;  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  there 
is  no  uniformity  in  usage  in  this. 

I  show  a  series  herewith  in  Figure  149. 

Machine-shop  drawings  should  be  stiff  and  flat  and 
never  rolled.  The  best  way  to  prevent  this  latter  is 
to  paste  them  on  heavy  tar-board  or  upon  thin  pine 
or  poplar  boards,  and  varnish  them  with  white  shellac 
varnish.  It  is  well  to  varnish  before  the  figuring 
and  lettering  are  put  on,  so  that  if  it  be  necessary  to 
change  the,  lettering  the  last  coats  of  varnish  can  be 
sand-papered  off  and  the  lettering  changed,  without 
the  lines  of  the  drawing  having  to  be  touched. 

Showing  all  Sides  of  an  Object.  About  the  most 
difficult  inventors  to  understand  are  those  who  insist 
on  showing  all  four  sides  of  their  inventions  on  one 
single  drawing.  Three  sides  are  bad  enough,  yet  I 
found  a  concern  in  Philadelphia  that  wanted  to  show 
the  front  and  both  sides  of  a  large  office-building  in 
one  view.  But  I  came  across  a  Western  firm  that 
shows  both  the  front  and  the  back  of  its  machines 
by  one  photograph.  It  is  done  by  placing  a  mirror 
back  of  the  machine  and  having  the  camera  at 
such  a  hight  as  to  show  the  rear  view  directly  over 
the  front  one.  It  is  a  good  trick  for  certain  classes 
of  machinery. 

Keeping  Track  of  Drawings.  In  every  establish- 
ment where  there  is  a  considerable  number  of  draw- 
ings, especially  in  detail,  and  more  especially  where 
some  of  the  sheets  may  be  used  on  more  than  one 
size  or  kind  of  machine  or  character  of  construction, 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


219 


WOOD 


GLASS 


STONE 


BRICK 


SHADE  LINE 


DOTTED  LINE 


IMAGINARY  LINE- 


CENTRE  LINE       


DIMENSION  LINE- 


EARTH 

FIG.  149  —STANDARD  HATCHINGS 


220  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  have  some  method  by 
which  any  given  drawing  may  be  kept  in  but  one 
place  and  found  in  that  place  when  needed,  or  else 
traced  to  where  it  is  in  use ;  also  that  if  a  drawing  is 
lent  or  sent  away,  record  can  be  kept  of  its  destination 
and  of  whoever  is  responsible  for  its  return. 

In  the  drawing-room  of  the  Brown  &  Sharpe  Man- 
ufacturing Co.,  at  Providence,  among  other  wrinkles 
is  a  system  of  card- cataloguing,  similar  to  that  in 
modern  libraries.  Every  drawing,  tracing  or  blue- 
print is  entered  on  a  card  four  and  seven-eighths  by 
two  inches,  with  a  seven-sixteenths-inch  circular  hole 
in  the  center  of  length,  centered  three-eighths  of  an 
inch  from  the  bottom,  hence  leaving  about  three- 
thirty-seconds  of  an  inch  of  card  between  it  and  the 
bottom  edge.  This  is  lettered  as  follows: — 

Time  No.,  or  Name  and  address.  |  DRAWING  INDEX— Brown  &  Sharpe  Mfg.  Co.  Prov.,  R.  I. 

Title. 


Marked  Indexed  under  hi  ad  of 

Remarks, 

There  are  three  colors  of  cards — pink,  white  and 
light  blue.  If  I  remember  rightly,  all  ordinary  draw- 
ings are  indexed  on  white  cards,  tracings  on  pink  ones, 
and  blue-prints  on  blue  ones.  These  are  strung  in 
alphabetical  order  on  rods  which  prevent  their  being 
withdrawn  from  the  drawers  in  which  the  cards  are 
kept;  and  they  are  never  taken  from  the  drawers.  Of 
course,  as  each  new  card  comes  in,  it  is  put  in  its 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


22  [ 


proper  alphabetical  place  without  disturbing  the 
others,  and  thus  the  record  is  always  exactly  complete, 
alphabetical  and  up  to  date. 

In  order  to  keep  track  of  drawings  that  are  taken 
from  their  cases  or  drawers,  there  are  used  cards  like 
this: 


TIME 


3  |    4|    5  |    6  L 


10  I  H  |  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |  17 


18  |  1»  |  20  |  21  |  22  |  23  |  24  |  25  |  26  |  27  |  to~~\  29  fWJ_81J I  32 1_|  33  |  34  |  35  |  36  |  37  |  38~ 
39 1  40 1~«  |  42  |  43  |  44  |  45  |  46  |  47  |  48  |  49  |  50~|  51  |  52  j  53  |  54  |  55  |  56  |  57  fS8  |  59 


Xote  Style 
of  Drawing 

Ink 
Drawing 

Pencil 
Drawing 

Sketch 

Blue  Print 

Date 

Delivered 

White  Paper 

Not  Mounted 

Buff       " 

Mounted  on 
Cardboard 

Section  " 

Mounted  on  Wood 

189 

Bond      " 

Delivered  to  Mr. 

Tracing" 

For  Mr. 

RECORD  OP  DRAWING   SEXT   FROM   DRAWIXG-ROOM 
Report  if  not  returned  within  a  reasonable  time,  or  if  soiled  or  mutilated  in  any  way 

Each  drawing  as  taken  away  from  the  drawing- 
room  to  go  to  pattern-shop,  machine-shop,  customer, 
or  wherever  it  may  be,  is  properly  entered  on  one  of 
these,  which  is  kept  as  a  silent  witness  against  who- 
ever has  the  drawing,  until  it  is  returned,  when  the 
card  may  be  (and  I  suppose  is)  destroyed. 

It  is  strange  that  so  many  shops  which  have  a 
system  of  checks  to  prevent  a  workman  forgetting  to 
return  a  fifteen-cent  drill-bit,  should  entrust  a  draw- 
ing worth  seventy-five  dollars  to  anyone  who  comes 
along,  and  without  keeping  any  record  of  its  delivery 
or  return. 

Curves  of  Long  Radius.  It  often  happens  that 
there  is  a  necessity  for  drawing  curves  of  great  radius 


222  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

or  of  making  drawings  having  a  vanishing-point 
which  would  be  somewhere  in  the  next  county  ;  and 
it  is  in  the  arrangement  of  devices  by  which  this  can 
be  done  without  taking  up  excessive  room,  that  the 
good  draftsman  shows  himself. 

Drawing  large  circular  curves  may  be  done  on  the 
"  three- point  n  system,  that  is  by  taking  advantage  of 
the  fact  that  in  every  circle  there  is  any  number  of 
sets  of  three  points  each,  which  will  be  equally  distant 
from  the  center  ;  planting  the  three  points,  placing 
pins  in  "-he  two  outer  ones,  and  swinging  about  them 
a  triangular  piece  bearing  a  pencil-point  in  its  apex, 
which  should  be  at  the  place  of  the  third  point. 

When  it  comes  to  drawing  with  the  vanishing- 
point  at  a  great  distance,  that  can  be  done,  not  by 
having  an  excessively  long  T-square  blade,  but  by 
cutting  a  wooden  template  to  a  circular  curve  of  the 
desired  radius,  putting  two  or  three  corks  on  the  edge 
of  the  T-square  head,  so  as  to  represent  three  points 
in  a  similar  curve,  and  sliding  it  around  so  as  to  pre- 
sent it  at  the  desired  angles  to  have  all  the  lines  con- 
verge to  the  desired  vanishing-point. 

Curve-Joining.  There  is  a  great  art  in  curve- 
joining  in  mechanical  drawing.  But  while  there  is 
a  great  art,  there  is  very  little  high  science.  There 
-is  required  the  knowledge  and  application  of  just  one 
principle  ;  that  two  curves  which  are  to  touch  and  join 
each  other  properly  must  have  a  common  tangent. 
Suppose  that  you  have  to  draw  an  oval  (not  an  ellip- 
tical) figure  having  a  semi-circle  as  one  portion  of  it,- 
and  three  circular  arcs  for  the  rest ;  these  circular  arcs 
to  join  the  semi-circle  and  each  other,  smoothly  and 
without  a  break. 

Draw  a  circle  and  across  it  a  diameter.     Use  one  of 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


223 


the  two  semi-circles  which  this  gives  you,  for  one  part 
of  the  oval.  Draw  another  diameter  at  right  angles 
to  the  first  one.  Through  that  point  where  it  cuts 
the  circle,  in  the  semi -circle  which  you  are  not  going 
to  use  as  a  part  of  the  oval,  draw  two  lines  across  each 
other  and  of  indifferent  length.  With  each  end  of 


FIG.  150. — CURVE  JOINING. 

the  first  diameter  as  a  center,  draw  a  circular  arc  start- 
ing at  the  semi-circle  and  reaching  just  to  one  of  the 
cross-lines.  With  their  crossing-point  (which  is  on  the 
semi-circle  not  used)  as  a  center,  and  with  a  radius 
reaching  to  where  the  circular  arcs  meet  the  crossing 
lines,  draw  a  circular  arc  which  will  complete  the 
aval.  The  first  pair  of  circular  arcs  that  you  drew 
will  then  be  tangent  to  the  semi-circle  and  to  the  last 
circular  arc  drawn  ;  and  the  oval  will  be  smooth  and 
symmetrical. 


224  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Equal  Concentric  Rings.  It  sometimes  happens  that 
it  is  desired  to  divide  a  circle  into  concentric  rings 
having  equal  areas.  Of  course  this  can  be  done  by 
dividing  the  area  of  the  circle  by  the  number  of  divis- 


FIG.  151. — EQUAL  CONCENTRIC  RINGS. 

ions  that  are  required  ;  dividing  the  area  of  each  part 
thus  found  by  0.7854,  and  taking  the  square  root  of 
the  quotient  for  the  diameter  of  the  inner  circle  ;  tak- 
ing the  square  root  of  twice  this  for  the  diameter  of  the 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  22$ 

next  circle,  the  square  root  of  three  times  the  inner 
diameter,  for  the  diameter  of  the  third  circle,  and  so 
on.  But  the  same  result  can  be  attained  much  more 
rapidly  and  just  as  accurately  by  dividing  the  radius 
of  the  circle  into  as  many  parts  as  there  are  areas  re- 
quired ;  on  the  entire  radius  as  a  diameter  drawing 
a  semi-circle,  and  at  the  points  of  division  erecting 
perpendiculars  to  the  radius,  meeting  the  semi-circle 
in  certain  points.  With  the  center  of  the  original 
circle  as  a  center,  and  radii  reaching  to  the  points  of 
intersection  of  the  perpendiculars  and  the  semi-circle, 
draw  concentric  circles.  These  will  be  found  to  divide 
the  circle  into  rings  having  equal  areas  with  each  other 
and  with  the  inmost  circular  portion. 

Erecting  a  Perpendicular  With  a  Two-Foot  Rule.  To 
do  this,  open  the  rule  and  rest  the  ends  against  a 
straight  edge  or  line,  with  one  leg  just  at  the  point 
where  the  perpendicular  is  to  be  drawn.  Then  hold- 
ing the  other  leg  firmly,  open  the  rule  straight  out  to 
its  full  length  ;  next  join  the  corner  which  before 
touched  the  line,  with  the  point  where  it  touched  it 
before,  and  you  have  a  perpendicular  to  the  straight 
line. 

Test  this  the  first  time  with  a  square  to  be  sure  that 
you  connect  the  two  proper  points,  and  after  that  there 
should  be  no  need  of  testing. 

For  flaking  Sun-Prints  from  Tracings,  with  black 
lines  on  white  ground,  put  the  tracing  and  the  sensi- 
tized paper  (the  Pontrichet  "  gallate  of  iron  n  process 
gives  lines  which  blacken  with  age  and  exposure  to 
sunlight) ,  put  the  tracing  and  the  sensitized  paper  into 
the  frame  in  the  usual  way  for  blue-printing,  and  ex- 
pose to  sunlight  so  that  the  rays  will  fall  squarely  on  the 
glass.  This  is  of  course  desirable  for  blue-printing 


326  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

also.  To  do  this  it  is  well  to  have  the  frame  swung 
on  horizontal  trunnions  and  also  mounted  on  a  carriage 
with  rollers  so  that  it  may  be  pointed  to  any  quarter 
of  the  heavens  and  inclined  at  any  angle  to  the  hori- 
zon) .  The  yellow  surface  of  the  paper  will  turn  white. 
When  that  part  under  the  tracing  has  become  nearly 
as  white  as  the  margin,  remove  the  print  and  immerse 
it  in  the  developing-bath,  composed  of  one-quarter 
ounce  of  developing-powder  to  each  gallon  of  water, 
in  an  acid-proof  tank  or  tray.  The  lines  will  turn 
black  and  the  ground  will  clear  up.  When  the  former 
are  dark  enough,  wash  the  print  in  clear  water,  allow- 
ing it  to  remain  therein  fifteen  to  thirty  minutes,  when 
you  may  hang  it  up  to  dry. 

Under-exposure  results  in  a  more  or  less  grayish 
background  ;  while  over-exposure  will  not  give  dark 
enough  lines  (burned  off).  The  developing-bath  may 
be  used  until  it  becomes  quite  black  and  dirty.  Any 
dirt  from  it  may  be  removed  from  the  paper  easily  by 
a  soft  brush.  Do  not  mix  too  much  developing-solu- 
tion  ;  have  the  bath  just  deep  enough  to  enable  you  to 
rinse  the  print  therein,  and  renew  it  oftener. 

Use  very  black  and  opaque  ink  for  all  tracings  that 
are  to  be  used  for  either  blue  or  black-printing.  The 
thicker  the  ink  the  better  the  prints  from  the  tracings 
will  be.  If  the  ink  is  not  opaque  enough,  add  a  little 
chrome  yellow  or  burnt  Sienna  water-color. 

Blue-Prints  of  Solid  Objects.  About  the  best  way 
to  get  a  working  drawing  of  a  complicated  piece 
where  the  outline  is  very  irregular  or  the  exact 
shape  of  the  curve  is  an  important  factor,  is  to  make 
a  blue-print  from  the  original  sample  itself.  The 
watch-makers  and  makers  of  watch-making  machinery 
do  this  with  great  success  and  satisfaction. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  227 

Simplicity  in  Design.  As  an  example  of  a  compli- 
cated way  of  doing  a  thing  when  there  is  a  simple 
one,  commend  me  to  this,  sent  on  by  an  inventor  who 
wants  me  to  finish  up  the  details  of  his  suggestion. 
The  idea  is  to  enable  a  certain  portion  of  a  surface  to 
receive  less  pressure  than  the  rest,  and  the  way  it  was 
to  be  accomplished,  according  to  our  ingenious  inven- 
tor, is  as  follows  :  "  Make  a  substantial  box,  a  little 
larger  than  the  surface  which  is  to  receive  less  pres- 
sure, with  a  hole  near  each  corner,  but  less  than  the 
hight  of  the  rest  of  the  surface.  Threads  should  be 
cut  in  these  holes.  Around  these  holes  place  rubber 
rings  to  act  as  springs.  Next  comes  the  block  with 
corresponding  holes,  a  little  larger  and  countersunk. 
Fasten  the  block  in  the  box  with  screw  bolts,  threads 
only  a  short  distance  up,  and  slipping  freely  through 
the  block,  but  the  heads  keeping  the  block  from  ris- 
ing higher,  while  the  rubber  permits  its  being  pressed 
a  little  lower.  Last  comes  the  top  surface-piece,  the 
whole  when  completed  being  exactly  as  high  as  the 
surrounding  surface.  The  pressure  on  the  now  elastic 
surrounded  surface  will  be  necessarily  less  than  on  the 
surrounding  area.  Many  modifications  can  be  made, 
but  the  above  gives  the  idea.  The  extra  expense 
when  the  method  is  once  understood  is  comparatively 
small  and  would  be  resorted  to  only  when  special  re- 
sults are  to  be  obtained,  and  then  the  expense  is  little 
considered  or  ought  not  to  be." 

To  this  there  should  be  but  one  reply  :  "  What  is 
the  matter  with  mounting  the  inner  part  on  a  slab  of 
soft  rubber?" 

As  to  extra  expense  being  of  no  matter,  it  always 
is  of  consequence  ;  and  even  if  it  cost  no  more  to  do 
a  thing  in  a  complicated  way  than  in  the  simple  one, 


228  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

110  inventor  should  ever  let  himself  get  into  the  habit 
of  making  a  thing  with  ten  pieces  when  two  would 
suffice  equally  well.  It  is  like  a  mechanic  allowing 
himself  to  do  bad  work  just  because  it  is  cheap.  If 
he  does  poor  work  and  makes  bad  fits  on  a  cheap  job 
his  style  will  be  spoiled,  his  value  lessened.  Go  into 
such  a  shop  as  Pratt  &  Whitney's  or  Brown  & 
Sharpens,  and  ask  them  to  do  a  rough  job  ;  you  will  be 
very  politely  told  that  their  men  don't  know  how  to 
do  it,  and  that  they  would  not  permit  them  to  learn. 

When  you  get  right  down  to  it,  very  often  the 
simple  methods  are  better  than  the  complicated  ones. 
Thus  in  taking  up  the  lost  motion  of  a  pair  of  brasses, 
there  are  very  few  cases  where  it  is  not  about  as  well 
to  have  liners  of  thin  sheet  iron  or  even  of  brown 
paper,  instead  of  a  wedge,  with  its  attendant  compli- 
cation of  adjusting-screws  or  set-screws.  If  an  ad- 
justing-screw has  a  pitch  of  sixteen  to  the  inch,  the 
range  of  adjustment  will  be,  in  practice,  about  one- 
five-hundredths  of  an  inch;  and  that  fine  an  ad- 
justment may  be  got  by  adding  or  removing  a  thin 
piece  of  paper,  or  by  substituting  paper  or  metal  of 
one  thickness  for  that  of  another. 

Simplicity  in  Engine  Design  may  be  carried  to  an 
extreme.  For  instance,  it  is  more  simple  to  have  the 
guides  in  one  piece  with  the  engine- frame ;  that  is, 
simply  straight  portions  of  the  latter,  planed  off  true. 
But  when  it  comes  to  planing  them  for  a  second  time 
(and  with  short  crosshead-slides  that  are  apt  to  be  need- 
ed soon)  the  simplicity  is  a  disadvantage,  if  instead  of 
being  able  to  take  off  the  guide-strips  and  have  them 
planed  true  and  smooth ,  you  must  rely  on  some  special 
device  for  planing  them  off  in  position ;  and  perhaps 
that  device  is  not  to  be  had  in  your  town,  or  you  may 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  229 

have  to  pay  too  much,  for  its  use.  The  best  way 
would  be  to  have  the  frame  itself  planed  true  to 
receive  parallel  guide-strips  which  are  reversible,  as 
the  crab-claw  catch-blocks  of  some  Corliss  engines  are. 

"  All  In  One  Piece.  "  While  multiplicity  of  pieces 
is  often  a  great  disadvantage,  yet  there  are  times  and 
places  where  it  is  much  better  to  have  some  parts  sep- 
arate from  others — especially  where  there  are  portions 
that  are  liable  to  be  rendered  inoperative  by  ordinary 
wear. 

One  of  the  best  examples  of  this  which  I  ever  saw 
was  in  the  case  of  the  first  pulsometers  that  were 
made,  in  which  one  of  the  special  talking- points  was 
that  they  were  cast  all  in  one  piece  ;  "no  complica- 
tion of  parts  ;  no  costly  machine- work,  "  etc.  Well, 
I  had  a  mine  to  pump  out  in  a  hurry ;  the  regu- 
lar pumps  were  at  the  bottom  of  the  shaft,  covered 
four  feet  deep  with  water,  and  the  pulsometer  seemed 
just  the  way  out  of  the  trouble.  It  was  lowered  down , 
and  did  the  work  nobly,  taking  black  gritty  water 
charged  with  sulphuric  acid  just  as  though  it  had 
been  made  for  that  and  nothing  else.  It  was  such  a 
good  thing  that  neighboring  mines  ordered  some 
to  be  ready  for  similar  emergencies.  But  a  change 
came  over  the  spirit  of  their  dreams  as  to  the  value  of 
such  an  apparatus  for  permanent  and  frequent  use. 
u  One  cast  shell  and  three  ordinary  cast-iron  balls  " 
sounded  very  well,  and  gave  signs  of  an  entire  ab- 
sence of  repair-bills.  But  the  time  came  when  the 
valves  and  their  seats  wore  so  that  the  valves  leaked  ; 
and  then  the  entire  apparatus  was  thrown  out  of  ser- 
vice, because  there  was  no  way  to  renew  the  valve- 
seat  by  grinding,  turning,  boring  or  any  other  opera- 
tion. This  was  remedied  in  later  designs. 


23o  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Ingenuity  vs.  Common  Sense.  Simple  means  are 
generally  the  best.  Here  you  have  gone  and  made  a 
very  expensive  air-cushion  to  receive  the  shock  of 
that  reciprocating  bed.  You  have  bored  out  a  cylin- 
der at  great  expense,  and  turned  out  a  piston  with 
great  expense  also  ;  but  that  is  not  enough,  you  must 
go  and  provide  for  varying  the  cushion,  by  having 
the  bottom  of  the  cylinder  screw  in  and  out.  It 
probably  cost  you  fifteen  dollars  to  make  that  adjust- 
able bottom  to  your  cylinder.  A  fifteen-cent  pet- 
cock  would  do  the  same  thing  just  as  well — better, 
in  fact.  When  you  want  more  resistance,  you  close 
it ;  when  you  want  less,  you  open  it.  The  adjust- 
able-bottom cylinder  is  ingenious,  but  the  pet-cock 
is  common-sense. 

The  Importance  of  Centers.  L,ay  out  your  centers  ! 
Never  mind  what  is  between  them,  until  you  see 
where  they  are.  Then  connect  them  by  straight 
lines  and  lay  out  the  positions  of  those  lines  in  vari- 
ous phases  of  the  revolution  or  other  movement  of  the 
machine.  If  the  lines  cross  at  any  time  there  will 
be  no  use  in  going  any  further ;  the  centers  will  have 
to  be  shifted,  or  the  plan  given  up. 

Designing  ««  Wrong  End  To."  Here  you  are  trying 
to  make  the  entire  plan  of  your  machine  fit  the  pieces 
that  you  have  made.  Make  the  pieces  fit  the  design 
of  the  machine. 

The  Brace  Principle.  Brace  it !  Brace  it !  The 
triangle  is  the  only  framed  form  that  cannot  be 
pushed  or  pulled  out  of  shape  without  breaking  the 
joints  or  distorting  the  sides.  The  square  can  be 
worked  about  its  joints  as  pivots,  until  it  is  flat  and 
its  sides  inclose  no  area  ;  but  the  triangle  allows  no 
such  liberties  taken  with  it. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  231 

Templates  of  the  Human  Figure.  Mr.  Oberlin 
Smith,  who  has  occasion  to  design  many  special 
forms  of  presses  and  other  machinery,  in  using  which 
the  workman  must  be  enabled  to  use  both  hands  and 
his  foot  at  the  same  time  to  control  the  treadles,  stock, 
etc.,  has  hit  upon  a  convenient  method  of  enabling 
himself  to  see  whether  or  not  the  various  levers, 
treadles,  etc.  are  at  the  best  proper  hight  to  be  con- 
trolled by  the  workman  without  changing  his  general 
position.  He  has  printed  templates  representing 
the  human  figure  in  profile,  one-half  size,  and  on 
other  scales.  Applying  to  the  drawing  that  template 
which  is  on  the  same  scale  as  the  drawing  itself,  he 
can  readily  see  whether  the  treadle  is  in  position  to 
be  easily  reached  by  the  foot,  whether  the  stroke  is 
too  great  or  not,  etc.,  and  in  similar  manner  with 
the  handles,  whose  position  and  throw  can  thus  be 
settled  before  the  drawing  is  completed,  and  made 
right  before  the  machine  is  put  in  iron. 

Graphical  Proportion.  Where  it  is  desired  to  make 
a  number  of  pieces  in  a  set  of  various  sizes,  all  of 
which  have  the  same  relation  to  each  other  in  all  the 
sizes,  in  keys,  etc.,  it  may  be  very  well  done  by  draw- 
ing by  u  graphical  proportion"  as  the  schools  have 
it.  For  instance,  suppose  that  there  is  a  piece  which 
has  on  it  the  dimensions  indicated  in  figure  by  AB, 
A(.\  AD,  AE,  etc.;  and  it  be  required  to  have  a 
smaller  size  with  all  the  dimensions  in  the  same  pro- 
portion. Lay  off  AB,  AC,  etc.,  on  a  line,  to  which 
erect  a  perpendicular  Ab,  having  the  length  of  the 
piece  on  the  smaller  size  which  is  to  correspond  with 
AB  on  the  larger.  Draw  Bb\  then  draw  AC,  AD, 
etc.;  draw,  parallel  to  Bb,  the  lines  Cc,  Dd,  etc., 
cutting  Ab  at  the  points  c,  d,  etc.  Then  if  A b  is  the 


232 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


dimension  on  the  smaller  size,  corresponding  to  AB 
on  the  larger,  Ac,  Ad,  etc.,  will  be  the  dimensions 
on  the  smaller  one  corresponding  to  AC,  AD,  etc.  on 
the  larger.  Where  there  is  a  still  smaller  size,  take 
on  the  dividers  the  dimensions  on  that  third  size 


6  IHG    FE       D  C  A 

FIG.   152.  — GRAPHICAL  PROPORTION. 

corresponding  to  AB  on  the  original  or  largest  size  ; 
with  A  as  the  center  describe  an  arc  which  shall  cut 
Bb  at  some  point,  which  point  connect  with  point  A, 
forming  a  straight  line.  Then  the  lines  Cc,  Dd,  etc. 
will  set  off  on  that  line  the  dimensions  corresponding 
to  AC,  AD,  etc. 

General  Dimension  Sheet.  It  often  happens  in  re- 
designing machinery  that  has  been  changed  from 
time  to  time,  that  there  are  conflicting  dimensions  on 
the  various  sheets  ;  and  if  special  care  is  not  exercised 
in  this  particular  it  may  turn  out  that  a  member  ap- 
pears to  be  longer  inside  than  out ;  or  that  a  journal 
is  larger  than  its  bearing.  In  order  to  prevent  this, 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  233 

it  is  well  to  collect  on  one  sheet  or  set  of  sheets  all 
the  dimensions,  arranged  as  far  as  possible  in  their 
mechanical  order,  so  that  cross  reference  may  be  made 
with  the  greatest  readiness,  and  inconsistencies  or  dis- 
crepancies brought  out. 

One  good  form  of  such  dimension  sheet  has  rulings 
for  lengths,  widths,  thicknesses  or  diameters,  and 
weights  ;  and  in  some  instances  it  will  be  found  well 
to  have  a  column  for  the  number  or  letter  of  the  piece, 
(referring  to  the  drawings  of  patterns  or  finished  parts 
themselves)  and  another  for  the  number  of  each  part 
that  will  be  required.  It  may  further  be  found  con- 
venient to  have  both  the  rough  and  the  finished  sizes 
and  weights. 

Breakages  of  Cast-Iron  Columns.  If  pattern- 
makers, molders  and  founders  junderstood  their  busi- 
ness better  there  would  be  fewer  breakages  of  cast- 
iron  columns.  Many  of  them  give  out  because  they 
have  too  much  metal  in  them.  It  is  possible  by  add- 
ing a  molding  to  a  column  which  would  be  strong 
enough,  to  cause  it  to  be  weak  at  that  point,  the 
molding  drawing  metal  away  from  the  interior  or 
sholl  proper  of  the  column.  Leaving  off  the  molding 
entirely  might  have  just  the  opposite  effect  if  it  was 
at  a  jog  in  the  diameter,  as  in  any  sharp  angle  there 
is  always  such  an  arrangement  of  crystals  as  to 
weaken  a  casting  at  that  point.  If  there  is  any  place 
where  a  molding  comes  other  than  a  fillet  in  a  sharp 
angle,  it  is  best  that  it  be  made  in  a  separate  part  and 
bolted  on; — that  is,  where  the  column  has  to  bear 
weight  and  its  failure  might  endanger  life  or 
property. 

Cast=Iron  Beam-Sections.    It    seems    strange    that 
founders   who    know  well   enough  that   cast  iron  is 


234  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

much  stronger  in  compression  than  in  tension,  and 
who  should  know  that  the  top  flange  of  a  beam  is  in 
compression  under  load,  and  the  bottom  in  tension, 
should  make  the  two  flanges  equal  in  dimensions. 

A  very  much  better  way  is  that   invented   in   the 
long  ago  by  Hodgkinson  and  shown  in  Figure  153  ; 


FIG.  153. — BEST  SECTION  FOR  CAST-IRON  BEAMS. 

the  lower  flange  having  about  five  times  the  cross- 
section  of  the  lower.  With  this,  there  is  obtained 
greater  strength  for  a  given  weight,  or  less  weight 
for  a  given  desired  strength,  whichever  may  seem 
most  desirable.  ' '  Verbum  sap ;  ' '  which  is  a  way 
the  old  Romans  had  of  expressing  the  fact  that  a 
word  to  the  wise  is  sufficient. 

Cylindrical  Nuts.  Ordinary  u  hex  "  and  square 
nuts  are  rather  expensive  to  make  and  sometimes  de- 
lay a  job,  they  take  so  long  to  get  up.  After  you  have 
them,  they  take  up  a  good  deal  more  room  than  is 
sometimes  convenient ;  and  they  certainly  use  up 
stock  at  an  appalling  rate.  For  small  work  it  is  in 
many  cases  much  better  to  use  cylindrical  nuts.  For 
three-eighths-inch  bolts,  cylindrical  nuts  three- fourths 
inch  in  diameter  will  replace  with  advantage  hexagon 
nuts  that  are  over  seven-eighths  inch  from  corner  to 
corner  ;  or  square  ones  over  an  inch  across  corners. 
When  of  this  size,  they  may  be  screwed  up  or  taken 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  235 

off  with  a  tool  having  jaws  opening  like  pincers,  but 
reamed  to  the  nut-diameter  when  they  are  very  slightly 
open.  The  nuts  themselves  may  be  produced  very 
cheaply  and  rapidly  by  taking  a  steel  bar  of  proper 
diameter  to  finish  to  size  after  turning,  feeding  it 
through  a  turret-lathe  head,  squaring  the  end,  drilling 
a  hole  in  it,  running  in  the  tap,  turning  the  surface 
and  cutting  off  the  nut — all  by  fixed  tools  in  the  turret- 
head,  and  the  cross  cutting-off  tool.  This  dispenses 
with  all  planing,  milling  and  seating  on  an  arbor. 

In  setting  up  such  nuts  there  is  a  great  advantage 
from  the  fact  that  the  wrench  may  get  a  grip  in  mov- 
ing through  the  smallest  arc  of  a  circle — instead  of  as 
with  a  square  nut,  requiring  a  quarter  turn  for  a  new 
hold,  or  with  the  u  hex  n  nut,  sixty  degrees. 

For  large  work  cylindrical  nuts  may  be  cheaply  pro- 
duced and  supplied  with  six  or  more  lengthwise 
grooves  for  a  spanner. 

Adjustment-Nuts.  In  such  places  as  on  milling- 
machine  spindles  which  have  no  back  support,  it  is 
necessary  to  have  adjustment-nuts  to  preserve  the  end 
position ;  and  this  adjustment  must  not  move  of  its  own 
accord.  One  way  is  to  have  two  nuts  jamming  each 
other,  turnable  only  by  a  spanner  working  in  holes. 
Another  is  to  give  the  main  nut  a  taper-threaded  ex- 
tension, which  is  split  in  four  lengths  and  has  a  taper 
pinch-nut  to  clamp  it.  Another  way  yet  is  to  split  a 
round  nut  and  pinch  it ;  and  this  is  very  good  when 
it  is  split  and  pinched  at  both  ends,  as  it  gives  good 
and  even  bearing  all  along  its  length.  It  is  better  to 
have  projecting  ears  for  the  pinching-screw,  as  this 
enables  the  use  of  a  wrench,  which  would  not  be  the 
case  if  the  screw-head  were  countersunk.  A  collar 
with  a  set-screw  is  a  good  way  also — and  by  the  way 


236  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

I  say  my  say  in  another  place  about  set- screws.  Where 
the  thread  is  not  exactly  true  with  the  spindle,  a  nut 
will  bear  on  only  one  side ;  and  to  meet  such  cases  the  de- 
vice shown  in  Figures  154  and  155  answers  admirably. 
It  consists  of  a  washer,  having  at  two  points  diametri- 
cally opposite  each  other,  projections  A ;  and  90  degrees 
from  these  on  the  other  face,  two  others,  B,  B,  A,  A, 
meet  the  face  of  the  nut,  and  B,  B  that  of  the  arbor. 


FIGS.  154  AND  155.— ADJUSTMENT-NUTS. 

A  nut  sawed  half  way  through  at  right  angles  to  its 
axis  may  be  pinched  on  the  male  thread  by  a  small 
screw  parallel  to  its  axis  ;  or  the  same  effect  may  be 
produced  by  partly  closing  the  cut  with  a  hammer.  If 
it  is  sawed  nearly  in  two  lengthwise  it  may  be  simi- 
larly closed  either  by  a  pinch-screw  or  by  a  hammer- 
blow,  or  pressure  in  a  vise. 

Improved  Stud=Nut.  In  shops  where  steam-engines 
are  built,  there  are  a  great  many  studs  to  put  in  ;  and 
the  method  in  general  use  is  to  use  a  square  nut  with 
a  set- screw  in  its  top,  and  a  piece  of  soft  metal  between 
the  set-screw  and  the  studs  to  prevent  bruising  the  lat- 
ter. These  nuts  soon  become  worn  and  loose  on  the 
studs;  then  the  threads  are  so  much  bruised  and 
strained  that  the  nuts  do  not  follow  as  they  should. 
In  the  old  Delamater  Iron  Works,  Mr.  H.  S.  Brown 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT. 


237 


devised  a  stud-nut  that  gets  over  these  difficulties  very 
nicely.  There  is,  as  shown  in  Figure  156,  a  bushing 
with  a  hole  tapped  for  the  stud  ;  then  on  the  outside 
top  is  a  thread  for  an  outside  nut  to  screw  on  ;  and  as 


FIG.  156. — IMPROVED  STUD-NUT 

it  screws  down  on  the  taper  bush  the  latter  closes  firm- 
ly on  the  stud,  and  prevents  straining  the  thread.    The 
bush  is  split  as  shown,  to  allow  it  to  close  on  the  stud. 
The  cap  on  the  top  is  to  prevent  the  outside  nut  screw- 
ing off  when  removing  the  nut  from  the  stud. 
Nut> Arbor.     Another  form  of  nut-arbor    is    that 
w  w 

\  ™"i 

H\ 


FIG.  157.— NUT-ARBOR. 
shown  in  Figure  157;    the  arbor  M  having  a  nemi- 


238 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


spherical  shoulder,  to  which  there  is  fitted  a  cup  wash- 
er TF,  that  will  run  over  and  balance  the  nut  whether 
it  fits  well  or  badly  on  the  arbor-thread. 

Differential -Screw  Lock-Nut.  In  some  French  shops 
where  one  piece  must  be  very  securely  fastened  to 
another,  as  where  a  piston-head  is  to  be  fastened  to  a 
rod,  or  a  propeller-hub  to  a  shaft,  they  employ  a  nut 
which  is  threaded  both  externally  and  internally  ;  the 
two  threads  being  slightly  different.  There  is  a  hexa- 
gonal part  on  the  outside  of  one  end  of  the  nut,  by 


FIG.  158. — DIFFERENTIAL-SCREW  LOCK-NUT  ON  PISTON-ROD. 

which  it  may  be  turned  ;  and  the  piston-head,  pro- 
peller-hub, or  whatever  it  is,  is  threaded  to  suit  the 
outside  of  the  nut.  Turning  the  nut  draws  the  rod 
or  shaft  in  with  a  force  equal  to  that  due  to  the  differ- 
ence of  the  two  pitches,  and  yet  the  strength  is  that 
of  the  coarse  thread.  The  nut  goes  on  the  rod  or 
shaft  a  few  turns  before  entering  the  head  or  hub. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  239 

This  same  principle  may  be  applied  to  fastening 
together  the  two  parts  of  a  connecting-rod  end  of  the 
marine  type,  or  a  bollard-head  on  a  capstan. 

The  Much -Neglected  Fillet.  Among  other  things 
that  are  not  given  so  much  credit  and  use  as  they 
should  be,  is  the  fillet,  especially  in  right  angles  of 
jaws,  housings,  and  similar  pieces.  A  pattern-maker 
will  get  up  a  pattern  for  a  piece  which  has  two  legs, 
or  whatever  they  may  be  called,  at  right  angles  with 
each  other,  and  one  of  which  is  subject  to  a  stress 
which  tends  to  open  out  the  angle.  If  it  is  cast  iron 
the  crystallization  in  such  internal  angle  is  of  a 
nature  which  will  very  readily  permit  a  crack  or  a 
break.  A  fillet  in  such  corner  would  do  two  things 
— put  more  metal  where  there  is  more  stress  and 
greater  leverage,  and  do  away  with  the  crystallizing 
at  right  angles,  which  is  the  curse  of  all  cast  work. 
Of  course,  for  wrought-iron  work  there  is  no  trouble 
about  the  crystallizing,  but  the  same  conditions  exist 
about  the  opening-out  strains  ;  they  may  be  modified 
in  the  first  place,  and  lessened  in  the  second,  by  fil- 
leting ;  and  in  about  four  cases  out  of  five  the  fillet 
would  not  be  in  the  way  of  anything  at  all. 

Cone-Center  Pivots.  The  further  you  get  away 
from  an  ordinary  sixty-degree  cone-center  on  your 
pivot,  the  further  you  are  getting  away  from  work 
that  is  both  cheap  and  good.  The  sixty-degree 
angle  is  cheap  and  easy  to  make  ;  the  tools  to  make 
it  are  cheap  to  make,  and  easy  to  keep  in  proper  trim  ; 
and  the  journal  and  bearing  can  be  taken  up  properly 
without  trouble. 

Covers  on  Brass  Cups.  In  brass- work  where  it  is 
necessary  to  screw  a  cover  down  snugly,  as  on  an  oil- 


240  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

cup,  there  are  two  ways  of  doing — one  to  undercut 
the  female  thread  on  the  inside  of  the  cap  and  the 
other  to  cut  one  or  more  male  threads  in  the  body ; 
the  former  will  be  found  the  best. 

Taper  Oscillating  Valves.  Those  who  have  had 
trouble  in  making  a  taper  oscillating  valve  so  that  it 
will  run  tight,  have  run  across  the  trouble  that  the 
valve  wears  smaller  and  the  seat  wears  larger,  (which 
was  to  be  expected )  and  even  providing  end  take-up 
so  as  to  bring  the  two  surfaces  together  does  not 
always  act,  because  the  large  ends  wear  more  than 
the  small  ones,  and  the  valve  and  the  seat  seldom 
wear  equally.  The  best  way  is  to  prevent  wear 
rather  than  to  provide  means  to  take  it  up  ;  and  this 
may  be  done  by  hanging  the  valve  on  trunnions  hav- 
ing about  the  same  amount  of  taper  as  it  has  ;  or 
without  taper  at  all,  according  to  the  materials  used. 
Then  the  valve  will  not  grind  on  its  seat  at  all,  and 
the  trunnion- wear  and  that  of  its  bearing  can  be 
taken  up  by  the  ordinary  device  of  quarter-brasses, 
or  by  end-adjustment,  or  by  other  means  which  will 
suggest  themselves  to  the  designer,  and  the  selection 
and  application  of  which  will  depend  on  the  circum- 
stances. 

A  Good  Crank=Pin  for  center-crank  engines  may  be 
made  by  passing  a  parallel  steel  pin  through  a  steel 
bush,  placed  as  a  distance  piece  between  the  crank- 
cheeks  and  held  by  a  nut  on  each  end. 

Holding  Things  in  Place.  The  reason  why  you 
have  so  much  trouble  with  those  bars  swerving  out 
of  their  places  is  that  you  go  about  it  the  wrong  way 
to  hold  them  in  place.  They  are  each  held  by  a 
single  screw  clamping  them  to  their  place ;  and  that 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT  241 

screw  has  not  a  very  large  face  to  the  under  side  of  its 
head.  The  leverage  is  against  the  screw,  and  it  lets 
go.  One  screw  might  do,  if  it  had  a  very  large  flat 
surface  to  its  head,  so  as  to  give  it  a  better  chance 
against  the  leverage  ;  but  it  would  be  better  to  have 
two  screws  as  far  apart  as  there  is  room  for  them. 

Equalizing  Locomotive-Drivers.  These  "chats" 
will  probably  go  into  a  good  many  locomotive-shops ; 
and  to  some  of  those  in  these  shops  I  want  to  say  that 
there  is  one  thing  that  is  not  often  taken  note  of — 
and  that  is  the  fact  that  with  improper  equalizing  be- 
tween the  drivers,  one  pair  will  wear  tires  faster  than 
the  other  or  others,  and  that  this  causes  a  loss  of 
power  and  a  fearful  wrenching  of  pins.  Of  course, 
the  pair  that  has  the  greater  weight  will  wear  the 
fastest.  Then  either  that  or  the  other  pair  will  have 
to  slip  ;  and  slipping  of  this  character  destroys  tires 
and  is  death  on  pins ;  much  worse  than  equal  slip- 
ping on  both  pairs.  So  if  you  have  an  eight- wheel 
engine  with  64,000  pounds  to  put  on  the  entire  wheel- 
set,  and  48,000  of  this  on  the  two  pairs  oi  drivers,  it 
should  be  considered  of  just  as  much  account  to  have 
24,000  pounds  on  each  axle  as  to  have  the  same 
weight  on  one  side  as  on  the  other. 

Solid  vs.  Spring  Pistons.  There  is  divided  opinion 
as  to  the  relative  merits  of  solid  and  spring  pistons. 
A  solid  piston  is  much  safer  than  a  spring  piston — 
there  is  much  less  liability  of  pieces  of  spring  getting 
in  the  ports  or  between  the  piston  and  the  cylinder- 
head  ;  but  pistons  and  cylinder-bores  will  wear,  and 
it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  have  some  way  by  which 
the  piston  may  be  increased  in  size  to  correspond  with 
the  bore.  Ordinarily  there  is  a  spider  about  which 


242  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

the  rings  are  sprung,  and  a  follower-plate  which 
butts  against  the  spider  or  head  proper.  This  gives 
the  springs  a  chance  to  expand  and  follow  out  the 
bore,  and  if  the  latter  is  "hour-glassing,"  they  can 
expand  and  contract  during  each  stroke.  But  where 
the  cylinder-bore  is  parallel,  it  is  a  good  plan  to  have 
the  follower-plate  arranged  to  grip  the  springs  be- 
tween it  and  the  spider,  so  that  when  the  springs  are 
set  out  to  the  desired  diameter,  they  may  be  held 
there  until  by  their  own  wear  and  that  of  the  cylin- 
der-bore, they  require  to  be  set  out  by  slacking  up 
the  follower. 

Cut  vs.  Wire  Nails.  Just  about  as  the  people  of 
this  country  are  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  wire 
nails  are  better  than  cut  ones,  you  start  to  make  a  cut- 
nail  machine.  Why  don't  you  keep  your  eyes  open  ? 
If  you  keep  on  at  this  rate  we  will  hear  of  your  start- 
ing a  stage-coach  shop  or  a  spinning-wheel  factory. 
This  world  moves,  young  man;  you  must  move 
with  it ! 

To  Keep  Nuts  from  Working  Loose.  It  often  hap- 
pens that  it  is  required  to  hold  a  hub  on  a  shaft  by  a 
nut,  which  would  work  loose  unless  specially  pre- 
vented. This  is  usually  accomplished  by  a  jam- nut 
or  other  separate  device ;  but  the  same  thing  may  be 
done  just  as  well  by  screwing  the  nut  up  against  the  end 
of  the  shaft  (as  shown  in  Figure  159)  instead  of  against 
the  hub  (as  shown  in  Figure  158).  In  Figure  158 
the  hub  projects  beyond  the  small  shoulder  of  the  shaft; 
in  Figure  159  the  latter  projects  beyond  the  hub.  In 
both  cases  the  end  of  the  shaft  is  threaded  for  the  nut ; 
the  only  difference  is  that  in  the  second  way  the  re- 
duced non-threaded  part  of  the  shaft  is  longer  than  the 
depth  of  the  bore,  instead  of  shorter. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


243 


Cost  of  Product.  Did  you  ever  try  to  cipher  up  just 
exactly  how  much  any  given  thing  that  you  had  made, 
had  cost?  And  after  having  done  so,  were  you  ever 
morally  satisfied  that  you  were  right ;  that  you  had 
not  either  cheated  yourself  or  overcharged  your  cus- 
tomer? To  a  certain  extent  you  may  tell  how  much 
your  raw  material  costs;  the  labor  on  that  particular  job 
is  very  much  easier  to  cipher  up  ;  but  when  it  comes  to 
the  shop  expense,  where  are  you  ?  That  is  the  most 
variable  factor  in  the  whole  business  ;  and  cost  figures 
got  up  on  this  basis  are  very  apt  to  resemble  the  old 


FIGS.  158  AND  159. — To  KEEP  NUTS  FROM  WORKING  LOOSE. 

woman's  recipe  for  cake,  in  which  she  gives  the  weight 
of  everything  except  one  item  in  ounces  and  fractions, 
and  then  says  ( 'some' '  butter,  or  '  'some' '  ginger.  One 
writer  says  "  shop  expense  is  usually  determined  an- 
nually by  subtracting  from  the  total  expenses  of  the 
business  the  sum  of  the  expenditures  for  raw  material 
and  labor,  and  dividing  the  balance  by  the  annual  labor 
cost ;  the  resulting  ratio  gives  the  average  relation  of 
labor  and  shop  expense  for  that  year,  and  is  used  as  a 
basis  for  the  next  year's  cost." 

There  used  to  be  a  story  of  a  man  who  told  the 
weight  of  a  pig  very  accurately  without  scales,  by  bal- 


244  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

ancing  the  pig  on  a  long  pole,  against  a  stone,  and 
then  guessing  the  weight  of  the  stone. 

On  this  basis,  in  a  big  shop  the  shop  expense  may 
be  much  greater  than  the  labor-cost ;  and  in  a  small 
one  very  much  less,  as  regards  ratio ;  where  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  assuming  the  raw  material  to  cost  the 
same,  the  big  shop  should  be  able  to  have  a  lower 
labor-cost  for  the  job  than  the  small  one.  Yet,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  little  shop  can  make  money  at  a 
price  that  would  seem  to  mean  a  loss  to  the  big  one 
on  the  same  job. 

A  better  way  is  to  regard  each  tool  as  a  workman, 
paid  so  much  a  day  ;  this  rate  being  made  up  of  the 
cost  of  power  that  the  tool  gets,  the  interest  on  its 
first  cost,  the  per  cent,  of  its  value  that  it  deteriorates 
each  year,  its  share  of  the  interest  or  rent  of  the 
building  which  protects  it,  and  its  share  of  the  de- 
preciation of  that  building.  Of  course,  during  the 
time  that  the  tool  is  not  in  use,  the  depreciation  of 
the  building  will  be  going  on  just  the  same  as  though 
the  tool  was  in  use  ;  and  to  certain  extent  so  will  the 
depreciation  of  the  tool  itself;  so  the  general  ex- 
pense-ratio will  be  rather  larger  for  the  big  shop  than 
for  the  small  one. 

Which  ever  way  you  look  at  it,  it  is  a  tangle  ;  but 
it  is  better  to  be  able  to  come  within  twenty-five 
per  cent,  of  the  actual  cost,  than  only  within 
fifty  per  cent. 

«*  Cost  and  Ten  Per  Cent.  ''  Some  years  ago  I  had 
occasion  to  get  some  work  done  in  a  machine-shop, 
and  it  being  an  ' '  experimental  job  ' '  where  parts 
had  to  be  tried  and  altered,  and  thrown  away  or  re- 
made if  unsuitable,  the  bargain  was  that  the  charge 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  245 

was  to  be  u  cost  and  ten  per  cent.  n  When  the  bill 
came  it  created  a  scene.  It  was  apparently  for  a 
large  slice  of  the  whole  establishment,  even  though 
this  was  a  large  one  occupying  several  blocks.  It 
was  about  twenty  per  cent,  highei  than  my  own 
running  umemos"  made  as  the  work  progressed,  and 
which  I  could  generally  rely  on  coming  within  from 
three  to  five  per  cent,  one  way  or  the  other  of  the 
bills  when  they  came.  I  demanded  an  itemized  ac- 
count, and  got  it — and  therewith  some  valuable  ex- 
perience. For  in  the  item  of  u  cost  "  there  appeared 
several  margins  of  profit  strictly  manufacturing, 
together  with  items  which  seemed  to  me  to  be  irrele- 
vent  and  "  not  my  funeral.  " 

For  instance,  when  a  bright  apprentice  at  one  and 
one- half  cents  an  hour  was  used  to  do  work  which  in 
other  shops  was  often  entrusted  to  a  skilled  hand,  I 
got  the  charge  for  the  skilled  hand.  The  apprentice 
got  the  practice,  the  firm  got  the  profit,  I  got  the 
experience.  However,  I  really  got  money's  worth, 
although  it  was  one  of  my  prime  reasons  for  going  to 
that  shop  with  my  work,  that  I  knew  their  appren- 
tices could  run  gear- cutters,  etc.,  with  their  eyes  shut 
(the  apprentices'  eyes,  not  the  machines',)  and  I 
hoped  to  be  charged  for  apprentices  only. 

Work  done  by  a  special  department  of  the  estab- 
lishment, which  was  run  as  a  special  business  con- 
cern, was  charged  at  a  profit  to  the  department  in 
which  my  work  was  done.  It  was  ucost"  to  the 
"  A  "  shop,  but  it  was  at  a  profit  to  the  concern 
owning  both  the  "  A  "  and  the  "  B  "  shops.  But  I 
had  expected  to  get  the  benefit  of  this  establishment 
having  its  own  pattern-shop,  foundry,  etc. 

But  what  broke  my  heart  and  ruined  my   temper 


246  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

were  the   following  headings,  which  appeared  among 
the  little  items  of  u  cost :  " 

Interest, 
Depreciation, 
Wear,  Tear  and  Repairs, 
Taxes  and  Assessments, 
Insurance, 
Superintendence , 
Correspondence  and  Accounting, 
Steam  for  Heating, 
Gas  for  Lighting, 
and  lastly, 

General ! 

That  is,  I  paid  my  share  for  the  time  during  which 
the  job  was  done,  on  all  the  foregoing  items  which 
entered  into  the  debit  side  of  the  firm's  ledgers.  I 
paid  not  only  4 '  my  share ' '  of  the  interest  on  the  build- 
ing in  which  my  work  was  done,  but  on  that  of  the 
others  covering  the  adjacent  blocks  and  owned  by  the 
same  concern.  (Whether  or  not  I  paid  u  my  share" 
of  this  and  other  items  on  the  buildings,  from  which 
came  the  patterns  and  castings,  on  which  those  depart- 
ments charged  a  profit,  which  were  included  in  what 
was  billed  to  me  as  u  cost,"  I  don't  know.)  I  paid 
under  the  head  of  * '  general  "  4  4  my  share  ' '  of  the 
wages  of  every  clerk,  foreman,  fireman,  sweeper  and 
oiler  employed  in  u  my  shop,"  and  "  my  share  "  of 
the  wages  of  the  watchman  employed  to  keep  my  work 
from  being  burned  or  stolen  at  night. 

What  was  "  my  share?" 

It  varied  each  day. 

If  there  was  $3,000  worth  of  work  done  in  the  es- 
tablishment, and  of  this  $30  worth  was  mine,  I  paid 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  247 

one  per  cent,  of  the  total.  If  it  was  a  slack  week,  and 
there  was  only  $300  worth  done,  I  paid  ten  per  cent.; 
but  it  is  no  more  than  fair  to  say  that  this  never  hap- 
pened. Still  I  was  glad  that  I  was  not  the  only  cus- 
tomer during  the  few  months  in  which  my  work  was 
done. 

It  might  be  well  for  my  readers  to  consider  well 
this  question  of  u  what  constitutes  cost,"  for  it 
concerns  the  manufacturer  much  more  than  it  does  the 
customer. 

The  firm  I  mention  seldom  lost  on  a  contract. 

Keeping  Account  of  Shop  Work  is  a  science  in  itself. 
The  system  in  use  at  the  Pratt  &  Whitney  Co.'s  is 
worth  studying.  Each  kind  and  size  of  machine  has 
a  number  and  each  part  other  numbers  ;  all  are  record- 
ed in  a  book  somewhat  thus : — 

1 6-INCH  GRIP  AND  SCREW  LATHE. 
i6-inch  grip  and  screw  lathe. 


No.  of 
Machine. 

No.  of 
Piece. 

Name  of 
Piece. 

^4 

3 
4 
6 

Butt  for  Screw. 
Collar  for  Spindle. 
Feed  and  Cock  Binder. 

7 

Spindle. 

*4 

Core-  Head. 

25 

Core-  Gear. 

27 

Bush-  Gear. 

The  conditions  of  the  work  on  each  piece  is  indi- 
cated by  marks  made  on  this  record  from  time  to  time. 
Thus  ( — )  means  that  the  piece  has  been  forged  or 
cast ;  (x)  centered  or  chucked ;  (*)  roughed  out ;  (* — ) 
nearly  finished  ;  (* — x)  finished  and  ready  to  be 
assembled. 


24S 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


The  time  on  this  is  kept  on  cards  filled  out  by  the 
workmen  for  the  foreman,  thus  : — 


Workfor  Geo.  Q.  Whitney. 


For  id-inch  lathes. 


No.  of 
Machine. 

No.  of 
Piece. 

No.  of 
Pieces. 

Name  of  Pieces. 

24 

5 

60 

Internal  Gear  Stud. 

Date. 

Work  by 

Hours. 

Operation. 

Jan.  79. 
"    20. 
Feb.  20. 

Tuttle. 
Thompson. 

5 
10 

10 

Roughing. 
it 

Milling. 

Total  number  of  hours  
Total  cost 

Averaere  cost  per  piece  .  .  . 

.    i 

Consumption  of  Supplies.  There  are  many  shops 
running  to-day,  the  proprietors  of  which  cannot  tell 
the  cost  of  any  one  item  in  their  production,  except 
perhaps  labor,  in  a  general  way.  There  are  others 
where  the  cost  in  each  item  or  sub-item  is  known  to 
a  decimal  point,  and  where  the  proprietors  can  detect 
a  leak  or  a  waste  the  first  week  of  its  happening. 

In  the  matter  of  supplies  too  many  shops  have  a 
"  go  as  you  please  "  system  or  way.  Every  one  is 
allowed  to  call  for  as  much  of  anything  as  he  chooses 
to  take  the  trouble  to  go  for  or  send  for.  It  is  easy 
to  see  that  in  such  shops  there  are  many  opportunities 
not  merely  for  waste  through  carelessness,  but 
for  theft. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


249 


Those  establishments  where  the  account  is  taken  of 
everything  that  is  issued  to  anyone,  and  not  only 
that  but  even  the  amount  to  any  one  department  or 
any  one  man,  assure  me  that  it  pays  them  to  do  it, 
just  as  much  as  it  pays  a  housekeeper  to  know  how 
much  butter  and  how  much  sugar  are  used  per  week 
and  per  meal  and  how  many  pieces  go  in  the  wash 
each  time  from  each  member  of  the  family  and  how 
many  come  back. 

In  the  Brown  &  Sharpe  shops  the  system  is  at  once 
simple  and  thorough.  To  commence  with,  in  each 
department  there  is  a  blank,  "  cap  "  size,  in  which 

TOOL  ROOM. 

No. BUILDING. 

Consumption  of  Supplies  by  HELP  for  the  four  weeks  ending 189.. 


Name. 


Cans  of  Oil. 


V 


Files 


=J 

I 


the  supplies  drawn  by  each  workman  are  entered. 
The  heading  of  one  of  these  blanks  (that  for  the  tool- 
room of  any  one  building,  the  number  of  which  lat- 
ter is  to  be  filled  in)  is  here  given.  If  there  is  sud- 
denly a  big  run  on  some  one  kind  of  supply  it  will 
be  known  at  once,  so  that  if  any  man  has  a  trick  of 
washing  his  hands  with  waste  and  lard  oil,  or  of 
pocketing  Grobet  files,  it  will  be  apt  to  be  traced  to 
him  pretty  quickly ;  and  also  if  there  is  an  extra  run 
on  any  one  kind  of  files  it  will  be  known,  so  that 
more  may  be  purchased  in  time  for  that  particular 
kind  of  work,  or  perhaps  the  work  transferred  to  mill- 
ing-machines or  emery  grinders. 


250 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


There  is  another  sheet  in  which  the  returns  from 
the  various  departments  are  entered,  as  turned  in  by 
each  on  the  forms  just  shown.  I  show  the  heading 
here.  In  the  left-hand  column,  headed  "  Supplies," 
appear  the  following  items :  lard  oil,  sperm  oil,  No.  i 
cosmoline,  No.  2,  cosmoline,  and  naphtha;  the  word 
' '  gals  ' '  appearing  at  the  head  of  each  of  the  nine  fol- 
lowing columns  for  these ;  then,  with  the  word 

TOOL  ROOM. 

No BUILDING. 

Consumption  of  Supplies  by  DEPARTMENTS  for  the  four  weeks  ending 189 . . 


Supplies. 

Basement. 

|| 

S£ 

Second 
Floor. 

Si 

Bg 

(J3    03 

If 

OQ  OQ 

Hardening 
Room. 

Pattern  and 
Flave  Shops. 

Foundry. 

"  dozen, "  items  bastard,  second  cut,  smooth  and  Gro- 
bet  files,  bench,  thread  and  tin-handle  brushes  ;  then 
belt-lacing  (feet);  next  with  "  Ibs."  items  solder,  iron 
rivets,  copper  rivets  and  waste ;  then  emery  cloth 
(qrs.);  next,  with  words  "ft.  and  in."  item  "  belt- 
ing," six  times.  On  each  blank  there  is  place  for 
other  departments  or  other  items,  should  new  ones 
be  added. 

Over-Time  Work. — Fritz  wanted  to  run  his  pattern- 
shop  over- time  last  week,  and  he  found,  that  in  order 
to  do  it,  he  had  to  run  all  his  main  line,  the  whole 
1 80  feet  of  the  shops,  although  the  pattern-shop  is  at 
one  end  and  the  engine  between  it  and  the  rest  of  the 
establishment.  So  all  night  150  feet  of  three-inch 
shafting  was  running  and  using  up  oil  and  babbitt- 
metal,  just  because  he  didn't  know  enough  to  put  in 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  251 

a  clutch  even  anywhere  along  the  line.  It  probably 
took  four  horse-power  to  run  that  straight  line  of  150 
feet ;  and  while  the  actual  cost  of  coal  for  four  horse- 
power for  ten  hours  ought  not  to  be  over  half  a  dollar, 
and  the  cost  of  oil  and  babbitt  on  the  extra  line,  and 
the  extra  cost  of  oil  and  babbitt  on  the  engine,  may  in- 
crease it  but  little,  the  risk  of  some  of  the  bearings 
running  dry,  and  of  something  happening  in  the 
shop  where  no  work  was  going  on ,  is  so  great  that  it 
is  foolish  to  take  it.  Moreover,  if  he  had  wanted  to 
run  his  pattern-shop  and  change  pulleys  in  the  main 
shop  at  the  same  time,  he  could  not  have  done  it. 

A  clutch  is  a  good  thing. 

Loss  in  Correcting  Bad  Work.  I  don't  like  to  see 
a  man  spend  about  four  dollars'  worth  of  time  and 
forty  cents'  worth  of  tools,  in  correcting  work  that 
should  have  been  right  at  first.  Now,  for  instance, 
there  is  a  man  who  is  using  a  round  file  to  correct  a 
hole  that  did  not  come  fair  in  boring.  It  will  take 
him  about  a  day  and  a  half  to  go  over  that  particular 
job  ;  he  will  use  about  forty  cents'  worth  of  file  as  I 
figure  it.  After  he  has  got  through  he  will  only 
have  a  round  hole,  which  he  should  have  had  at  first ; 
and  it  will  not  be  of  the  diameter  that  was  desired , 
but  will  be  too  large.  If  he  had  properly  used  the 
tools  and  jigs  that  are  at  his  disposal  he  would  have 
saved  you  the  cost  of  his  time  and  file,  and  himself 
the  mortification  (if  he  feels  it)  of  having  done  a  bad 
job  ;  although  what  usually  causes  the  mortification 
is  not  doing  bad  work,  but  being  found  out.  He 
should  no  more  use  labor  and  round  files  to  correct 
work  in  his  department,  than  his  fellow  workmen 
should  use  a  drift  to  correct  bad  punching  in  the 
boiler- shop. 


252  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

If  your  man  will  start  out  and  mark  off  two  circles, 
one  of  the  proper  size  and  the  other  half  the  size  of 
the  hole  to  be  drilled,  he  will  find  out  when  he  has 
got  down  to  the  size  of  the  smaller  circle,  whether  he 
has  made  his  start  right  or  not ;  and  if  he  has  not,  he 
can  readily  correct  himself  before  he  has  gone  far 
enough  to  do  any  harm  ;  but  if  he  waits  until  he  gets 
to  the  full  diameter  of  the  hole,  it  will  be  too  late. 

The  Figurer.  In  almost  every  community  there  is 
some  man  or  other  who  has  certain  figures  by  which 
he  swears  under  all  circumstances.  Sometimes  the 
figures  are  right  and  sometimes  they  are  wrong. 
More  often  they  are  right  under  certain  conditions 
and  "away  off"  under  others.  The  worst  case  of 
figurer  of  which  I  know  is  the  man  who  figures  up 
belt-power  and  that  sort  of  thing.  He  is  of  the  class 
who  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread.  It 'is  his  rule 
that  600  feet  per  minute  of  single-leather  belting  one 
inch  wide  will  carry  one  horse-power.  With  him, 
that  rule  is  like  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians 
in  that  it  altereth  not  neither  is  it  to  be  changed.  It 
makes  no  difference  what  kind  of  a  pulley  the  belt 
runs  on,  nor  how  many  degrees  of  arc  of  contact,  nor 
whether  it  is  a  vertical  or  a  horizontal  belt,  or  an 
open  one  or  a  crossed  one,  nor  how  tight  it  is 
stretched,  nor  what  the  diameter  of  the  smaller  pulley 
—it  is  600  feet  to  the  horse- power  and  that  settles  it. 
As  it  often  takes  1200  feet,  and  as  sometimes  400  will 
do  it,  one  can  readily  see  that  the  figurer  will  some- 
times come  out  wrong,  and  may  indeed  be  the  cause 
of  some  figuring  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  ( '  Profit  and 
Loss  ' '  account  in  the  ledger. 

Another  figurer  is  the  one  who  needs  a  certain  dis- 
charge of  water  from  a  given  area  under  a  given  head 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  253 

or  with  a  given  velocity,  no  matter  whether  the  open- 
ing is  round  or  square,  long  and  narrow,  or  angular ; 
no  matter  whether  it  is  tapering  down  or  flaring,  nor 
whether  the  material  is  rough  wood,  or  polished  iron 
tube ;  his  4 c  90  cubic  feet  of  water  with  a  rate  of  flow 
of  two  feet  per  second  "  has  got  to  be  accepted.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  there  are  cases  where  the  actual  flow 
is  only  one-half  of  the  theoretical  at  this  speed,  in- 
stead of  the  three-quarters  which  gives  the  rate  of  90 
cubic  feet.  But  little  things  like  that  don't  bother 
the  figurer.  One  of  them  indeed  had  120  cubic  feet 
per  minute  through  a  square  foot  of  orifice,  with  a 
flow  rate  of  two  feet  per  second ;  and  when  it  was 
shown  him  that  the  maximum  amount  that  could 
possibly  go  out  at  that  speed,  supposing  that  there 
was  no  friction  at  all  between  the  water  and  the  walls 
of  the  orifice,  was  120  cubic  feet,  he  acted  just  about 
like  that  other  man,  who  on  being  shown  where  his 
statements  did  not  coincide  with  the  observed  facts, 
calmly  remarked  (l  so  much  the  worse  for  the  facts." 

All  of  us  who  figure  should  bear  in  mind  that  con- 
stants and  rules  are  properly  obtained  from  average 
practice,  and  that  they  are  seldom  invariable.  New- 
ark, N.  J.,  is  just  now  (  December,  1895 )  preparing 
to  lay  a  supplementary  pipe-line  for  its  water-supply, 
because  the  one  already  laid,  with  dimensions  based 
on  an  erroneous  constant  based  on  the  Rochester  line, 
carries  only  about  half  to  two-thirds  what  was  ex- 
pected. 

Calculating  Horse-Power  There  is  no  use  in  going 
up  stairs  for  the  privilege  of  coming  down,  either  in 
walking,  language,  or  calculation.  When  figuring 
up  horse-power  it  is  usually  necessary  to  get  at  the 
area  of  the  piston-head  by  squaring  the  diameter  and 


254  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

multiplying  the  square  by  0.7854  ;  and  then  it  is  nec- 
essary to  divide  by  33,000.  Now  as  0.7854  — f-  33000 
=  0.0000238,  that  figure  may  be  used  as  a  direct 
multiplier,  thus  not  only  saving  time,  but  lessening 
the  chances  of  mistakes  by  substituting  one  opera- 
tion for  two. 

Another  good  figure  to  remember  in  this  connec- 
tion is  that  2oJ  inches  is  the  diameter  of  a  circle 
having  an  area  of  330  square  inches  ;  and  for  an 
engine  of  this  piston-diameter  the  horse-power  at  100 
Ibs.  per  square  inch  mean  effective  pressure  is  equal 
to  the  piston -speed. 

Net  Horse=Power  of  Steam=Engines.  About  1893 
I  published  a  rule  for  giving  the  net  horse-power  of 
steam-engines,  allowing  about  16  per  cent,  for  friction; 
which  is  about  right  in  most  cases.  As  I  have  many 
times  been  asked  for  it  I  repeat  it :  Multiply  the 
mean  effective  pressure  in  pounds  per  square  inch  by 
double  the  piston-speed  in  feet  and  by  the  square  of 
the  piston-diameter  in  inches;  then  point  off  five 
places  from  the  right.  Thus:  an  engine  10"  x  12" 
at  200  turns  per  minute,  with  50  pounds  per  square 
inch  of  mean  effective  pressure,  should  by  this  rule 
have  a  net  horse-power  of  50  x  800  x  100  =  40 
(ooooo.)  Its  gross  horse-power  would  be  50  x  78.54 
x  400  •—-  33000  =47.6 

Another  form  of  the  rule  for  net  horse-power,  allow- 
ing about  1 6  per  cent,  for  friction,  is  to  multiply  the 
mean  effective  pressure  by  one-fifth  the  piston- speed  in 
feet  and  by  the  square  of  the  piston-diameter,  and 
point  off  four  places.  Thus  the  same  engine,  allowing 
1 6  per  cent,  for  friction,  etc.,  would  have  50  x  80  x 
ioo  =  40  (oooo)  net  horse-power. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  255 

In  all  engines  of  12  inches  bore  the  gross  horse- 
power equals  the  product  of  the  mean  effective 
pressure  and  the  travel  in  feet  per  minute,  divided  by 
291.8  ;  and  the  net  horse- power  is  about  equal  to  the 
mean  effective  pressure  times  thrice  the  piston-speed, 
with  three  figures  pointed  off  from  the  right. 

Thus  :  1 2 -inch  engine  has  40  pounds  mean  effect- 
ive pressure,  and  400  feet  piston-speed:  then  the  net 
horse-power  equals  400  x  1200  =  48. 

A  simple  formula  for  horse-power,  which  I  got  up 
in  the  long  ago,  is  PA  T-±-  33,000;  P  being  the  mean 
effective  pressure  in  pounds  per  square  inch,  A  the 
piston- area  in  square  inches,  and  T  the  piston- travel 
in  feet  per  minute. 

Pressure  on  Safety- Valves.  Calculations  aside,  the 
pressure  on  a  safety-valve  may  be  determined  by  a 
good  scale  hooked  at  the  point  at  which  the  valve-stem 
is  connected  with  the  lever.  The  lever  being  hori- 
zontal as  shown  in  Figure  160,  the  pull  on  the  scale 


/        \ 

FIG.  160. — PRESSURE  ON  SAFETY-VALVES. 

shows  how  much  pressure  there  is  exerted  on  the  valve 
proper  by  the  beam  without  any  upee."  The  pee 
being  put  in  place  at  any  desired  position,  the  balance 
will  indicate  just  what  pressure  the  lever  and  pee  will 
put  on  the  valve.  The  valve  being  weighed  separately 


256  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

on  the  same  balance,  and  its  weight  added  to  the 
amount  due  to  the  lever  and  pee,  you  have  the 
entire  weight  on  the  valve.  This  being  divided  by 
the  area  of  the  valve,  (as  taken  from  a  table  of  areas  of 
circles  or  figured  out  by  multiplying  the  square  of  the 
diameter  by  0.7854),  the  pressure  per  square  inch  at 
which  the  valve  will  blow  off  will  be  known. 

Where  it  is  desired  to  calculate  the  effect  of  the  pee 
two  distances  should  be  measured,  as  shown  in  Figure 
161 ;  that  (d)  from  the  fulcrum  to  the  valve- stem 
and  that  (D)  from  the  fulcrum  (not  from  the  valve- 
stem)  to  the  pee.  Then  in  the  same  proportion  as 
that  between  d  ancl  D  will  the  weight  of  the  pee  be 


\ 

FIG.  161. — PRESSURE  ON  SAFETY-VALVES. 

multiplied  by  the  leverage.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  to  this  the  dead  weight  of  the  valve  and 
stem,  and  the  multiplied  pressure  due  to  the  weight 
of  the  lever,  must  be  added.  Thus,  if  the  lever  when 
removed  and  balanced  in  a  strong  loop,  balances  at  a 
point  distant  say  eighteen  inches  from  the  fulcrum, 
and  the  stem  is  six  inches  from  the  fulcrum,  the  weight 
of  the  lever  will  be  multiplied  18  — —  6  equals  three 
times,  by  its  own  leverage. 

We  will  suppose  that  this  is  the  case ;  that  the  lever 
weighs  seven  pounds,  the  valve  and  stem  six,  and  the 
pee  fifty  ;  and  that  the  pee  stands  at  a  distance  D  equal 
to  four  times  d.  Then  we  have  for  the  pressure  ex- 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  257 

erted  by  the  pee  4  x  50=200  ;  for  that  exerted  by  the 
lever  3  x  7=21,  and  for  that  exerted  by  the  valve  and 
stem  6  ;  total  pressure  200 -f- 31  +  6=227  pounds. 

Finding  the  Center  of  Gravity.  You  sometimes 
need  to  find  the  center  of  gravity  of  an  irregular 
figure.  If  it  is  a  piece  of  regular  thickness,  cut  out 
its  outline  in  stout  pasteboard  of  regular  quality 
throughout,  and  then  stick  a  needle  squarely  through 
it  about  where  you  think  the  center  should  be,  until 
you  find  a  place  at  which  it  will  stay  in  any  position 
in  which  you  place  it,  when  the  needle  is  held  horizon- 
tal and  the  hole  is  large  enough  to  let  the  piece  turn 
freely. 

Another  way  is  to  make  a  little  plumb-bob  of  a 
thread  and  a  bullet  and  hang  it  from  the  needle  when 
the  latter  is  stuck  in  two  places  near  the  periphery  of 
the  card.  Where  the  lines  cross  will  be  the  center 
of  gravity. 

Atmospheric  Pressure.  The  pressure  of  the  atmos- 
phere is  given  in  text-books,  engineers'  pocket-books, 
etc.,  as  all  sorts  of  things  from  14.7  pounds  per 
square  inch  each  way.  So  many  different  decimals 
are  given  that  sometimes  it  is  difficult  to  check  off 
the  accuracy  of  a  result  or  of  a  formula. 

The  International  Bureau  of  Weights  and  Measures, 
and  the  U.  S.  Coast  Survey,  use  as  their  figure  for 
reduction,  a  standard  of  pressure  representing  that  of 
a  column  of  mercury  760  mm  high,  at  a  temperature 
of  o°  C  equals  32°  F,  at  sea-level  in  latitude  45°. 
Under  these  circumstances  a  column  of  mercury  is 
balanced  by  a  column  of  air  weighing  14.697  pounds 
per  square  inch.  This  value  is  derived  thus  : 

13.5956  (density  of  mercury)  x  76  x  6.4517  x 
.00220462  equals  14.697. 


253 


SHOP  KINKS  SND 


Anchoring  Beams  to  Blocks  is  often  called  for ;  and 
when  done  it  should  be  done  u  for  keeps/"  One 
very  good  way  emanating  from  Sibley  College  in  its 
early  days  shows  how  it  may  be  done  by  a  taper  plug 
having  its  largest  diameter  just  equal  to  the  hole 
drilled  in  the  rock,  and  a  gas-pipe  of  the  same  diam- 


PLUG 


FIG.  162. — ANCHORING  BEAMS  TO  ROCKS.     (SWEET.) 

eter.  The  plug  being  dropped  or  pushed  into  the 
hole  in  the  rock,  the  latter  having  been  drilled  and 
the  timbers  bored  to  the  same  diameter  as  the  outside 
of  the  pipe,  the  tube  is  then  driven  down,  and  when 
it  finds  the  plug  its  lower  end  is  expanded  into  the 
rock  so  that  it  will  be  larger  than  the  hole  above. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


259 


The  upper  end  of  the  pipe  may  be  expanded  and 
turned  over  as  shown  in  the  sketch. 

Plumb=Bobs  are  seldom  if  ever  made  of  the  right 
shape  to  insure  their  coming  to  rest  soon.  They  are 
usually  made  of  pear  shape  with  the  string  where  the 
stem  would  be ;  or  when  they  are  intended  to  indi- 
cate a  point  underneath  them,  instead  of  a  line  along- 
side of  the  line,  they  are  top-shaped  with  a  sharp 
spike.  In  the  former  case  the  swinging  is  stopped  in 
the  least  possible  time  permissible  with  such  a  bob, 
by  letting  it  hang  in  a  pail  of  water  or  very  thin  mud, 
or  some  other  liquid. 


FIGS.  163  TO  165. — FORMS  OF  PLUMB-BOBS. 

But  both  of  these  forms  are  all  wrong.  Any  body 
tends  to  rotate  about  its  shorter  axis  ;  and  if  not  hung 
in  this  line  it  will  not  make  any  difference,  but  will 
wabble  about  and  try  to  assume  that  line.  That  this 
is  a  fact,  any  school-boy  who  has  attended  lectures  on 
physics,  and  seen  a  whirling-machine  cause  a  chain 
ring  hung  by  one  edge  to  flatten  out  and  revolve 
about  an  imaginary  axis,  can  attest.  Now  the  plumb- 
bob  should  be  turnip-shaped,  so  that  it  can  be  hung 


260  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

on  its  shortest  axis ;  and  then  all  the  whirling  that 
it  can  undertake  will  not  make  this  axis  swerve  from 
a  vertical  line.  If  for  ordinary  use  in  plumbing  col- 
umns, etc,,  it  needs  no  points ;  but  if  it  is  to  be  hung 
so  as  to  point  to  a  particular  spot  on  the  ground 
it  should  have  a  spike  as  a  prolongation  of  this 
shorter  axis. 

Plumb=Bob  Lines  may  be  readily  reeled  up  by  using 
the  cheapest  kind  of  fishing-rod  reel  on  a  short  pine 
stick.  It  is  just  as  good  as  though  it  cost  forty  dollars. 

Plumb-Bob  Tips  screwed  to  the  body  of  the  bob  may 
have  a  milled  flange  about  half  an  inch  from  the  butt 
end,  and  a  thread  cut  on  both  sides  of  this  flange, 
so  that  when  the  bob  is  not  in  use  the  point  may  be 
unscrewed  and  turned  into  the  body  of  the  bob,  thus 
lessening  the  room  required  and  diminishing  the  chance 
of  injury  to  the  point. 

To  Press  in  Connecting=Rod  Bushings,  driving-box 
brasses,  etc.,  it  is  well  to  have  some  stirrups  made  of 
about  two  to  two-and- a  half  inches  square  steel,  the 
legs  to  be  drilled  with  seven-eighths-inch  to  one-inch 
holes  about  three  inches  apart ;  these  stirrups  to  be 
passed  through  holes  in  a  cast-iron  base  about  one  and 
one-half  by  two  feet  square.  The  jack  being  set  on 
the  base  and  the  driving-box,  connecting-rod  or  other 
piece  against  the  stirrup,  a  common  jack  may  be  in- 
troduced and  the  work  done  with  neatness  and  dis- 
patch. The  various  pairs  of  holes  in  the  stirrup-piece 
will  enable  holding  work  of  different  dimensions  with- 
out changing  stirrups,  and  without  working  the  jack 
too  far.  Any  slight  difference  in  dimension  may  be 
taken  up  by  a  shim,  so  that  there  need  not  be  too 
much,  pumping. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  261 

Disconnecting  a  Piston=Rod.  Jake  Damphool,  down 
at  the  Vulcan  Works,  disconnected  the  piston-rod  of 
their  engine,  which  was  screwed  into  the  crosshead, 
by  a  pair  of  pipe-tongs ;  and  a  pretty-looking  rod  he 
had  of  it,  after  he  had  got  through.  Will  Wide-awake, 
over  at  the  Etna  Works,  clamped  two  pieces  of  hard- 
wood together  with  a  piece  of  pasteboard  between  them, 
described  on  their  ends  a  circle  of  the  diameter  of  the 
piston-rod,  sawed  that  out,  and  thus  had  a  clamp  on 
which  he  could  use  a  long  wrench.  You  had  better 
try  his  plan ;  and  before  you  replace  the  rod  give  the 
thread  a  good  coating  of  graphite  and  oil,  and  it  will 
run  in  more  easily  ;  then  the  next  time  you  want  to 
disconnect  you  will  find  it  give  only  about  one-half 
the  trouble. 

For  Removing  Piston-Rods  from  Crossheads  where 
they  have  got  too  firmly  seated,  it  is  convenient  to 
have  a  small  hydraulic  ram  such  as  is  used  in  some  rail- 
way shops.  But  there  are  many  places  where  such  work 
is  done  so  seldom  that  there  is  no  use  in  investing  in 
the  ram ;  and  again  many  rods  have  to  be  removed 
in  place,  and  the  ram  is  not  always  handy.  For  such 
work  it  is  often  best  to  have  a  short  piece  of  crop-end 
of  shafting,  with  an  inch  hole  bored  nearly  all  the 
way  through  its  length,  and  having  at  right  angles  to 
this  a  slot  (say  an  inch  wide  by  two  inches  long  for 
a  three-inch  piece  of  shafting)  extending  clear  through. 
In  the  lengthwise  hole  place  a  steel  cylinder  five- 
sixteenths-inches  in  diameter,  (or  the  crop-end  of  so- 
called  f-in.  rod  or  iron  shafting,  in  default  of  anything 
better)  of  a  length  sufficient  to  reach  from  the  end  of 
the  large  block,  to  the  cross  slot.  This  is  the  plun- 
ger, and  the  large  block  is  the  cylinder  of  this  me- 
chanical rain,  the  power  of  which  is  to  be  gained  by 


262 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


a  wedge.  Placing  this  between  the  rod-end  and  the 
wrist-pin,  and  putting  between  its  end  and  the  pin  a 
packing- piece  of  copper,  the  rod  may  be  forced  out 
by  a  well  black-leaded  steel  wedge  of  slight  taper — 
the  slighter  the  taper  the  more  easily  the  work 
is  done. 

A  Driving-Block,  such  as  is  shown  in  Figure  166, 
has  a  solid  foundation,  and  may  be  used  for  driving 
out  spindles  whether  they  be  one-half  or  four  inches 
in  diameter.  The  opening  is  V-shaped  and  the  face 
plain.  By  reversing  it  there  is  presented  a  good  anvil 
for  straightening  shafting. 


FIG.  166.— DRIVING-BLOCK. 

The  cost  is  but  slight ;  the  room  which  it  takes  up 
insignificant ;  while  the  number  of  times  when  it  will 
prove  serviceable  makes  it  well  worth  its  keep.  It 
should  be  of  good  tough  cast  iron  and  free  from  sharp 
re-entrant  angles.  The  sketch  shows  sufficiently 
clearly  how  it  may  be  given  great  strength  to  resist 
blows  with  comparatively  little  weight. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


263 


Drift  for  Arbors.  Drifting  arbors  is  no  fun  if  the 
drift  happens  to  slip,  as  by  a  foul  blow.  The  liabil- 
ity of  this  happening  is  very  much  lessened  by  the 


FIG.  167. — DRIFT  FOR  ARBORS. 

device  shown  in  Figure  167,  B  being  a  babbitt- metal 
disk,  the  thickness  of  which  is  less  than  the  depth  of 
the  recess  in  which  it  fits. 

A  Shrinkage-Gage  which  was  brought  out  at  the 
Hartford  Steam  Engineering  Co'.s  Works  should 
prove  handy.  As  shown  in  Figures  168  and  169,  A 
is  a  frame  having  at  its  lower  end  a  fixed  measuring- 
piece  B,  and  at  its  upper  end  a  thread  and  taper  split 
hub,  receiving  externally  a  taper- threaded  screw  cap 
C  and  internally  a  tube  £,  having  at  its  bottom  a  fixed 
plug  F.  The  adjustable  measuring-leg  is  threaded 
with  the  tube  £",  so  as  to  be  adjustable  for  various 
diameters  of  boxes,  but  may  be  locked  by  the  jam- 
nut  H.  The  cap-nut  C  and  jam-nut  //once  loosened 
and  screwed  back,  allowing  the  stem  G  and  the  tube 


264 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


E  to  be  adjusted  to  the  exact  size  of  the  shaft  for 
which  a  shrinkage  fit  is  to  be  bored,  the  cap-end  C 
and  jam-nut  II  are  screwed  home ;  the  nut  C  draw- 
ing the  split  hub  of  the  tube  E,  so  that  the  shaft 
measurement  is  made  with  all  the  lost  motion  of  the 
device  taken  into  account.  Then  C  is  loosened,  E 


FIGS.  168  AND  169. — SHRINKAGE-GAGE.  (HARTFORD  S.  E.  Co.) 

raised  up  by  turning  to  admit  a  shrinkage-gage 
piece  J,  Figure  169,  the  thickness  of  which  equals  the 
amount  to  be  allowed  for  the  size  of  bore  to  be  shrunk 
on  the  shaft.  J  being  inserted,  E  is  turned  back  so  as 
to  bind  J  between  the  end  E  and  the  flat  piece  .#, 
when  C  is  screwed  down,  again  clamping  E. 

Erection-Blocks.     In  every  large  shop  where  heavy 
machinery  is  erected,   there  is  felt  the  necessity  of 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  265 

so.ne  way  of  giving  the  machines  a  firm,  solid  founda- 
tion during  erection,  and  often  during  test  also.  It 
would  be  impossible  to  have  the  entire  shop  floor  so 
solid  as  to  do  away  with  the  necessity  for  special 
foundations,  and  it  is  expensive  to  build  these  even 
temporarily.  In  the  Bement  &  Miles  shops  they 
employ  ( 4  erection-blocks  "  of  cast  iron,  say  six  feet 
long,  and  twelve  inches  by  nine  on  the  end,  cored 
out  to  lighten  them,  and  planed  over  all  four  sides. 
Combinations  of  these  are  much  better  than  wooden 
balks,  as  they  have  the  advantage  of  being  of  absolute 
standard  size,  and  of  affording  an  even  bearing  all 
over  their  surfaces  ;  also  they  permit  various  combina- 
tions of  hight  which  may  be  convenient  where 
certain  under  portions  of  the  machines  in  course  of 
erection  are  higher  than  others. 

To  supplement  their  use  there  are  also  very  shoit 
screw-jacks,  which  aid  in  supporting  portions  of  the 
machines  which  could  not  be  brought  to  a  bearing 
on  long  blocks,  or  which  might  not  be  an  even  multi- 
ple of  twelve  or  nine  inches  from  the  floor. 

Hydraulic  Fits.  In  the  fine  shops  of  the  H.  Bol- 
linckxCo.,  in  Brussels,  Belgium,  (where  the  present 
manager,  Mr.  Arthur  Bollinckx,  is  in  his  make-up, 
about  as  near  an  approach  to  a  New  England  Yankee 
as  anyone  I  have  found  in  that  bustling,  practical 
little  kingdom,)  they  have  an  excellent  way  of  attain- 
ing two  desirable  objects  in  making  jacketed  steam- 
cylinders  for  Corliss  engines.  The  cylinder  proper  is 
cast  with  one  pair  of  '  *  nozzles  ' '  for  the  valves  of  one 
end,  the  other  end  being  the  "  pipe  "  or  "  runner  " 
end.  The  jacket  is  cast  with  the  other  pair  of  noz- 
zles, for  the  valves  of  the  other  end  of  the  engine  ; 
the  other  end  of  this  casting  being  the  sinking-head. 


266  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Then  both  sinking-heads  are  cut  off  and  the  two 
castings  are  made  to  fit  each  other  "  metal  to  metal,  '• 
being  forced  together  hydraulically.  Thus  we  have 
cylinders  with  no  honey-combs  in  either  the  bushing 
or  cylinder  proper,  or  the  jacket ;  there  are  110  leaky 
joints  ;  and  no  cores  can  float  out  of  place  and  afford 
the  steam  insufficient  passage-way — as  sometimes 
happens  when  a  chaplet  fetches  loose  in  our  ordinary 
system  of  making  these  same  things. 

Screwing  Pieces  Together.  The  ordinary  practice 
of  laying  out  and  doing  work,  where  one  piece  has  to 
be  fastened  to  another  by  two  or  more  screws,  is  to  lay 
out  the  centers  for  the  bolt-holes  and  tap-holes  by 
cross-marks  which  are  then  prick-punched  ;  and  the 
holes  are  next  drilled  and  tapped.  The  holes  may 
or  may  not  be  accurately  spaced,  so  that  the  pieces 
go  together  with  greater  or  less  difficulty  ;  and  some- 
times one  screw  pulls  one  way  and  another  in  another 
direction.  Then,  according  as  one  or  the  other  screw 
is  tightened  first,  the  part  assumes  different  positions. 
If  the  holes  are  made  considerably  too  large,  there 
may  perhaps  be  less  trouble  about  assembling,  but 
more  as  regards  the  firmness  of  the  machine  when 
put  together. 

In  the  Bilgram  shops,  in  Philadelphia,  the  practice 
is  much  better  than  this.  There  only  one  of  the 
tap-holes  is  tapped  at  first ;  then  screwing  the  part  to 
be  held  in  place  by  this  one  screw,  the  remaining 
holes  are  tapped,  letting  the  full-sized  holes  act  as 
guides  for  the  tap. 

This  method  of  procedure  takes  a  little  longer  at 
first,  but  in  the  end  it  pays  by  reason  of  the  superior 
accuracy  of  the  work. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


267 


Scaffold-Dogs.  Where  round  timbers  are  used,  it 
is  rather  more  difficult  to  make  scaffolds  than  where 
square  ones  are  available.  .But  our  neighbors  across 
the  water  make  use  sometimes  of  dogs,  by  which 
quite  large  poles  may  be  rapidly  and  securely  clamped 
together  and  very  readily  taken  down  when  desired. 
As  shown  in  Figures  170  and  171,  there  is  a  U-shaped 
piece  of  round  iron,  the  free  ends  of  which  are  bent 


FlGS.    170  AND    IJI. — SCAFFOLD-DOGS. 

round  so  that  it  may  be  described  as  a  U-shaped  hook 
or  a  hooked  U.  Its  bow  is  passed  through  a  double 
dog  having  downwardly-projecting  teeth  which  may 
be  driven  into  the  vertical  member.  The  horizontal 
timber  being  laid  in  the  upturned  arms  of  the  U- 
shaped  hook  as  shown  in  Figure  170,  the  greater  the 
weight  brought  on  the  hook  the  more  firmly  the  teeth 
of  the  dog  are  driven  into  the  vertical  timber. 

Ladder  Scaff old = Bracket.  I  have  been  putting  up 
some  scaffolding,  and  using  ordinary  short  ladders  as 
the  uprights.  This  is  the  way  it  is  done  :  The 
plank  upon  which  the  men  work  is  supported  by 
i  J  x  i  J  x  J  inch  T-angle  irons  Z>,  bent  at  one  end 


1268 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


G,  to  half  encircle  the  ladder-round  5,  and  at  the 
other  end  jp,  turned  up  and  perforated  with  a  7-16 
inch  hole.  A  strap  E,  i  J  x  f  inches,  is  twisted  and 
bent  so  as  to  half  encircle  the  rung  (7,  and  has  at  its 
other  end  a  number  of  7-16  inch  holes,  in  line,  so  as  to 
permit  the  plank  to  be  kept  in  cross  level,  no  matter 
what  the  inclination  of  the  side-pieces  A.  Pins  7-16- 
inch  in  diameter  with  heads  and  split  cotters  connect 
E  with  D  at  F.  There  is  at  each  end  of  the  plank  a 
piece  similar  to  D,  fastened  there  by  four  long  flush- 


FIG.  172. — LADDER  SCAFFOLD-BRACKET. 

screws  ;  the  plank  resting  also  on  the  flanges  of  the 
T's.  About  a  foot  from  each  end  there  is  another 
piece  similar  in  outline  to  D  but  made  of  plain  strap, 
i  J  x  3-  inches,  bent  as  at  G  and  as  at  Fy  but  twisted  so 
as  to  present  the  flat  side  to  the  under  surface  of  the 
board.  Four  short  flush-screws  fix  each  of  these  to 
the  board  at  such  distance  from  D  as  to  bring  the 
straps  at  the  ends  of  the  rounds  where  the  latter  are 
strongest  against  shearing.  In  the  sketch,  G  is 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  269 

shown  hooked "  to  the  next  round  above  the  one  on 
which  D  rests  ;  but  there  should  be  length  enough  of 
E  to  permit  it  being  hooked  to  the  round  next  but 
one  above  B. 

Stagings.  In  these  days  of  towering  buildings  a 
fall  from  a  scaffolding  or  staging  means  more  than  it 
did  when  three,  or  at  most,  four  stories  was  the  limit ; 
and  care  should  be  taken  to  have  the  supports  of  the 
strongest  character,  while  ease  of  putting  up  and  tak- 
ing down,  as  well  as  cheapness,  be  not  forgotten.  It 
may  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  old  way  of  cutting 
or  leaving  holes  in  the  walls,  through  which  to  pass 
joists,  has  about  passed  away;  also  that  the  erection 
of  a  forest  of  rough  boards  and  round  or  square  timber, 
nailed,  bolted  or  lashed  together  in  a  crude  manner, 
is  not  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  metropolitan  con- 
structive art.  Staging  for  brick-layers  requires  to 
be  strong,  stiff  and  light,  and  must  be  of  a  character 
to  be  easily  put  up  and  taken  down  by  unskilled 
laborers.  Assuming  that  a  wall  has  been  run  just 
past  the  second  floor  line — say  to  the  window-sills  ; 
the  joists,  of  course,  being  in  their  place,  what  is  the 
best  way  to  put  up  staging  to  accommodate  the  men 
and  materials?  One  way  is  as  shown  in  Figure  173^ 
in  which  W  is  th^  wall,  J  one  of  the  joists  under  a  win- 
dow, P  a  3  x  lo-inch,  or  better  yet,  a  3  x  1 2-inch 
piece,  one  of  several  which  are  to  support  the  ij-inch 
boards  F,  which  constitute  the  staging  floor.  A 
double  hook  H,  shown  separately  in  Figure  174,  is 
made  of  strap  or  bar  iron  three  inches  wide,  one-half 
inch  thick ;  slipped  under  the  joist  /,  and  held  while  the 
plank  P  is  slipped  under  its  upper  end  ;  wedges  are 
driven  in  to  bring  P  level,  and  the  plank  is  then 
ready  to  receive  the  weight.  The  hooks  should  be 


270  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

forged  so  as  to  take  in  the  joists  and   planks   snugly, 


ONE  WAY  OF  PUTTING  UP  A  STAGING 


VIEW  OF  DOUBLE  HOOK 
F 


H 


ANOTHER  METHOD  OF  SUPPORTING  A  STAGING 
FIGS.  172,  173,   174. — STAGINGS. 

If  there  is  any  lateral  looseness,  a  wedge   should   be 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  '271 

driven  in  to  keep  the  planks  P  from  rocking.  Tres- 
tles may  be  put  on  the  floor  F,  if  desired,  but  never 
rested  on  bricks,  as  is  a  common  custom,  in  order  to 
gain  a  couple  of  inches. 

Another  method  of  hanging  or  supporting  external 
stagings  is  shown  in  Figure  175,  in  which  the  line  D  E 
F  G  H  K  represents  an  iron  bar  1x3  inches,  bent 
as  shown,  and  L  M  N  another,  bent  and  twisted  in 
the  line  indicated  and  bolted  to  the  other,  if  desired. 
Omitting  L  M  N,  the  bar  D  E  F  G  H  makes  a  good 
hanger,  which  may  be  hooked  in  the  window,  W  rep- 
resenting the  wall  and  C  the  casings.  The  plank  P 
serves  as  a  staging  for  painters,  pointers  and  other 
workmen  who  do  not  require  hods  of  material  to  be 
brought  to  them.  Q  gives  a  higher  reach  if  desired. 
An  off-set  M  prevents  the  plank  Q  being  displaced 
laterally,  and  another,  0,  serves  as  a  rest  for  what- 
ever blocking,  #,  may  be  required  to  keep  the  hanger 
vertical  when  affixed  to  a  wall  thinner  than  the 
maximum  to  which  it  can  be  applied.  If  desired,  L 
M  N  may  be  of  sufficient  length  between  L  and  M  to 
raise  the  plank  Q  to  the  level  of  K ;  the  same  bolt 
going  clear  through  three  thicknesses  instead  of  two. 
This  will  give  a  ' 4  second  reach  } '  considerably  higher 
than  that  shown  in  the  illustration  at  Q.  The  hanger 
as  arranged  may  be  used  to  support  trestles,  a  narrow 
plank  S  being  inserted  for  that  purpose.  Instead 
of  the  twist  in  the  line  M  N,  there  may  be  one  in 
K  L,  which  will  allow  a  wider  board  to  be  used  at  Q  ; 
or  there  may  be  lateral  off-sets,  without  twists,  in 
both  K  L  and  M  N ;  those  in  every  strap  similar  to 
M  N  being,  say,  to  the  right,  as  viewed  from  Jf,  and 
those  in  all  similar  to  K  L  being  to  the  left,  as  viewed 
from  the  same  point. 


272  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Common  Sense  in  Arrangement.     One  day   I  was 

much  struck  by  a  very  great  waste  of  time  and  labor 
which  was  taking  place  at  the  entrance  of  an  immense 
establishment,  and  probably  was  an  indication  of  other 
wastes  which  were  going  on  within. 

There  were  being  discharged  from  a  truck  at  the 
door,  a  number  of  large  packages  which  weighed  from 
seven  hundred  to  nine  hundred  pounds  each ,  and  were 
not  handy  to  lift  or  carry.  Each  of  these  had  to  be 
weighed  and  its  number  and  gross  weight  noted,  before 
being  put  upon  the  elevator  and  taken  upstairs.  The 
position  of  the  doorway,  scales  and  elevator  are  as 
indicated  by  Figure  1 76  ; 

H — s 1- 


Fie.  176. — WRONG  ARRANGEMENT. 

D  being  the  doorway,  E  the  elevator  and  S  the 
scales.  Every  package  on  being  rolled  in  from  the 
truck  was  taken  from  D  to  $,  and  then  packed  and 
turned  so  that  it  might  be  run  on  the  elevator,  which 
was  capable  of  taking  several  of  them  at  once.  The 
doorway  was  ample,  and  there  was  plenty  of  room  all 
round  for  any  disposition  that  might  have  seemed  the 
most  practical. 

Had  I  been  doing  that  job  I  should  have  arranged 
it  about  as  follows  : — running  the  packages  in  from 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


273 


the  doorway  to  the  scales  at  once,  then  keeping  on 
with  them  under  the  scales  and  to  the  elevator  plat- 
form. This  was  an  establishment  in  which  there  was 
a  constant  stream  of  tierces  and  cases,  each  of  which 
had  to  be  weighed,  and  all  of  which  came  in  at  the 
same  door,  and  went  up  the  same  elevator.  Why  the 


FIG.  177. — BETTER  ARRANGEMENT. 

scales  should  have  been  put  in  the  dark,  beyond  the 
elevator,  and  the  packages  and  tierces  taken  back  on 
their  track,  is  beyond  me. 

The  former  arrangement  strikes  me  as  not  at  all 
practical. 

Cranes  and  Their  Kin.  Every  now  and  then  I  see 
some  establishment  or  other  stalled  with  its  crane 
unable  to  lift  a  load,  which  the  crane  itself  is  strong 
enough  to  hold  up,  but  which  the  hoisting-gear  is  not 
powerful  enough  to  raise  or  control.  This  leads  me 
to  point  out  some  ways  by  which  as  long  as  the  struc- 
ture itself — the  mast,  the  boom,  and  the  rest  of  its 
framing — is  strong  enough,  as  well  as  the  building  to 
which  it  is  fixed,  if  it  is  so  fastened,  the  lifting-power 
of  the  gears  may  be  increased. 

Once  in  a  while  with  hand  cranes,  this  is  done  by 
having  instead  of  the  ordinarily-used  spur  and  pinion, 
another  pair  having  greater  pitch-ratio.  Thus,  if  there 


274  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

is  for  u  every-day  "  use  a  thirty-six- inch  spur  served 
by  an  eight- inch,  pinion,  making  four  and  one-half  to 
one,  with  a  distance  between  centers  of  twenty- two 
inches,  to  have  another  pair  with  a  ratio  of  seven  to 
one,  the  spur  having  a  pitch-diameter  of  thirty-eight 
and  one-half  inches  to  the  pinion's  five  and  one-half 
inches.  The  four  and  one-half  to  one  gears  being 
removed,  the  seven  to  one  can  be  keyed  on  in  their 
place.  These  gears  should  have  wider  faces  than 
those  which  do  less  work,  as  the  strain  on  the  teeth 
is  greater. 

Another  way  is  to  fasten  to  the  end  of  the  boom  a 
ring  or  a  stud  to  which  the  hook  of  the  hoisting-rope 
or  chain  may  be  attached  after  the  rope  or  chain  is 
passed  through  a  single  block  having  a  hook  to 
which  the  load  may  be  made  fast.  The  result  of  this 
will  be  that  for  every  foot  of  chain  that  is  hauled  in 
by  the  windlass  the  load  will  be  raised  only  six 
inches,  so  that  the  hoisting-power  of  the  crab  will 
be  about  doubled.  (It  would  be  just  doubled  if  it 
were  not  for  the  friction  of  the  extra  block.) 

Of  course,  neither  of  these  methods  will  enable  a 
crane  to  raise  a  weight  greater  than  can  be  properly 
put  on  its  frame  or  on  the  chain  and  gears.  If  there 
should  be  any  doubt  about  the  latter,  the  windlass 
may  be  made  to  do  double  work  without  putting  any 
extra  strain  on  the  frame  which  bears  it,  or  on  the 
chain  itself,  by  catching  hold  of  one  end  of  the  load 
and  raising  it,  using  the  other  end  as  a  fulcrum  ;  rais- 
ing as  high  as  is  convenient,  blocking  up  at  the  raised 
end,  catching  hold  of  the  other  end  and  doing  the 
same  thing,  and  so  on,  alternately  raising,  blocking 
and  shifting.  This  plan  will  answer  better  for  long 
articles  such  as  very  heavy  girders  or  posts,  or  for 


MACHIXE  SHOP  CHAT.  275 

long  cylindrical  boilers,  than  for  short  ones  like 
marine  engines. 

This  plan  of  increasing  the  hoisting-power  of  the 
crane  is  sometimes  desirable,  not  because  the  crane 
itself  or  its  chain  or  gears  may  be  weak,  but  because 
of  lack  of  good  hoisting-power.  In  some  parts  of 
the  country,  or  in  some  conditions  of  the  labor  mark- 
et, there  may  be  insufficient  man-power  at  the  crane ; 
but  if  the  gear  may  be  changed  from  four  and  one- 
half  to  one  up  to  seven  to  one,  one  strong  man  can 
do  as  much  work  with  it  as  two  light  ones  ;  or  two 
light  men  can  do  as  much  as  two  strong  ones. 

Where  there  is  no  crane  that  may  be  made  of  suffi- 
cient power,  or  where  the  existing  cranes  will  not 
reach,  there  should  be  some  one  about  the  place  who 
has  ingenuity  enough  to  rig  up  a  tackle  out  of  a  few 
ropes  or  chains  and  blocks,  attached  to  the  overhead 
timbers  of  the  building,  if  there  are  any  available, 
and  if  there  are  not,  by  the  use  of  spars  or  of  long 
balks  resting  on  the  wall-plates  or  in  the  upper  win- 
dow-opening, or  set  in  a  tripod  on  the  ground. 
Such  spars  should  be  lashed  together  with  a  rigger's 
hitch  or  with  some  of  the  suitable  rope-fastenings 
which  may  be  learned  from  Brainard's  little  book  on 
"  Knots,  Splices,  Hitches,  Bends  and  Lashings." 
Care  should  be  taken  to  have  the  spread  of  the  tim- 
bers as  great  as  possible  in  order  to  give  sufficient 
room  among  them  to  manoeuver  the  piece  to  be  lifted  ; 
although  it  must  also  be  remembered  that  the  more 
spread  such  tripod  has  for  a  given  length  of  legs,  the 
less  load  it  can  carry  ;  a  fact  that  must  be  borne  in 
mind  in  handling  heavy  weights  with  long  light 
timbers,  the  strength  of  which  has  never  been  proved. 
All  such  timbers,  if  not  perfectly  square  in  cross  sec- 


276  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

tion,  should  be  so  placed  that  the  strain  will  come  on 
them  in  the  direction  of  their  greatest  width.  Thus  a 
two  by  eight  is  sixteen  times  as  strong  edgewise  as 
crosswise,  to  a  load  applied  at  right  angles  to  its 
length  ;  and  while  this  same  ratio  does  not  apply  to 
where  it  is  used  as  the  legs  of  a  tripod,  and  gets  strain 
partly  endwise  and  partly  crosswise,  this  fact  should 
be  borne  in  mind  and  taken  advantage  of. 

All  hoisting- chains  should  be  annealed  from  time 
to  time.  After  they  break  and  kill  someone  is  the 
wrong  time  to  anneal  them ;  prevention  is  better. 

The  bearings  of  all  blocks  should  be  kept  well  lubri- 
cated with  black-lead,  either  with  or  without  tallow 
or  other  grease.  Those  which  have  hinged  shells  are 
better  than  those  with  solid  blocks,  because  they  will 
permit  the  rapid  reeving  through  them  of  ropes  or  of 
chains  having  hooks  on  their  ends  ;  it  being  easier  to 
open  a  snap-block,  lay  the  rope  or  chain  in  the  groove, 
and  close  and  latch  the  shell,  than  to  unbend  the  rope 
from  the  hook  or  detach  the  chain  from  it — especial- 
ly in  view  of  the  swivel  that  there  should  be  at  the 
hook. 

Hoisting-rope  should  be  chosen  not  only  with  ref- 
erence to  its  strength  and  durability,  but  with  a  view 
to  flexibility.  It  will  be  found  well  to  smear  all 
hoisting-rope  well  with  graphite  (black-lead)  and  with 
a  trifle  of  tallow.  This  will  greatly  increase  the  ease 
with  which  it  reeves  through  the  blocks,  and  to  some 
extent  lessen  its  stiffness  without  impairing  its 
strength. 

All  hoisting-ropes  and  chains  should  be  kept,  when 
not  in  use,  either  extended  in  place  all  ready  to  be 
put  into  service  on  a  moment's  notice,  or  properly 
coiled  up  in  parallel  ' (  fakes  ' '  of  easy  curve ;  then 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


277 


they  will  last  longer  and  be  more  readily  paid  out  or 
handled  when  the  time  comes  that  they  are  wanted. 

How  to  Handle  Large  Castings.      Balance   is  the 
thing.     Here  you  are  straining  everything  and  every- 


FIG.  178. — HANDLING  LARGE  CASTINGS  WRONGLY. 

body,  because  nearly  every  one  that  you  have  slung 
is  so  hung  that  it  will  only  hang   one  way,   and   in 


278  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

addition  to  that  it  hangs  lower  than  it  should  to  be 
conveniently  handled,  requiring  you  to  lift  it  higher 
than  if  you  were  to  sling  it  differently.  Now  in  raising 
Cleopatra's  Needle,  which  is  somewhat  of  a  massive 
stone,  the  engineers  calculated  its  center  of  gravity  so 
nicely,  that  when  they  got  on  its  iron  jacket  and  raised 
it  by  its  trunnions,  it  balanced  so  exactly  that  one  man 
could  cause  the  entire  great  mass  of  two-hundred  tons 
to  swing.  Don't  you  suppose  that  that  enabled  them 
to  handle  it  more  easily  than  if  it  had  been  picked  up 
about  five  feet  to  one  side  of  its  center  of  gravity,  so  as 
to  have  a  long  end  tipping  down  and  leaning  against 
everything  in  the  way  ? 

Electric  Cranes.  Now-a-days  instead  of  getting  in 
cranes  where  they  will  go,  the  shop  is  designed  to  fit 
around  the  crane  ;  and  in  two  cases  out  of  three  it  will 
be  an  electric  crane.  Down  the  center  of  the  modern 
shop  is  an  immense  nave  like  that  of  a  church,  flanked 
on  either  side  by  two-story  or  three-story  galleries, 
above  what  would  correspond  to  the  transepts  of  the 
church.  The  great  master-crane  travels  the  full  length 
of  the  shop  and  handles  every  heavy  piece;  its  move- 
ments being  governed  by  from  one  to  three  motors 
and  comprising  hoisting,  lengthwise  motion,  and 
traversing,  each  at  variable  speeds  suitable  to  the 
work  to  be  done.  In  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works, 
one  of  the  new  shops  has  track  accommodations  for 
seventy-five  engines  at  once.  Every  place  in  it  is 
controlled  by  the  great  traveling  crane,  which  has  a 
capacity  of  one  hundred  tons  and  will  pick  up  the 
heaviest  engine  built,  lift  it  high  above  all  the  other 
work  in  the  shop,  and  carry  it  to  any  place  selected; 
and  when  all  the  operations  are  completed  will  place 
it  on  the  two  main  cross- tracks,  on  which  it  may  be 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  279 

taken  out  of  the  shop  with  its  own  steam — or,  as  is 
more  usual,  towed  out.  In  another  shop,  in  handling 
locomotive-drivers  on  their  axles — formerly  such  a 
pair  of  wheels  took  about  thirty  men  half  an  hour  to 
get  them  from  where  they  were  finished  to  their  place 
at  engine  for  which  they  were  designed ;  now,  with 
the  electric  crane,  two  men  do  it  in  five  minutes. 

The  question  of  three  motors  versus  one  is  often 
agitated.  The  Baldwin  people  prefer  to  have  all  three 
of  the  movements  controlled  by  but  one,  and  to  have 
another  as  a  spare,  all  ready  to  be  thrown  into  service 
in  ten  minutes  in  case  of  break-down  of  the  regular 
one.  Where  there  are  three,  they  claim  that  there  is 
three  times  the  chance  of  a  break-down;  and  a 
break-down  of  any  one  of  three  puts  the  entire  crane 
out  of  service. 

A  Wrinkle  About  Cranes.  There  are,  of  course, 
thousands  of  shops  where  it  is  not  possible  to  put  in 
electric  cranes,  and  where  it  would  not  be  advisable 
to  go  to  the  expense  even  if  it  were  possible.  Yet 
there  arise  emergencies  when  it  would  be  desirable 
to  have  a  crane  in  some  particular  place,  just  for  a 
day  if  not  permanently. 

Noting  in  the  cylinder-shop  of  the  Baldwin  Loco- 
motive Works  that  on  every  other  post  there  was 
an  electric  jib  crane  which  commanded  practically 
the  entire  space  in  a  radius  up  to  the  next  post,  so 
that  the  heaviest  cylinders  with  their  saddles  and  all 
could  be  taken  right  out  of  one  special  tool  and  land- 
ed in  another  on  a  truck,  the  idea  occurred  to  me 
that  in  shops  similarly  constructed,  having  circular 
iron  columns  supporting  the  roofs  or  holding  up  gal- 
leries, it  would  be  feasible  to  have  collars  bolted 
around  every  post,  near  the  base  and  above,  and  to 


280 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


have  jib  or  other  cranes  which  might  be  temporarily 
affixed  to  the  post ;  being  operated  by  hand  or  by 
electric  motor  as  might  be  desirable.  A  shoe  partly 
embracing  the  pillar  at  the  bottom  and  resting  on 
the  collar,  would  serve  as  the  lower  support  for  an 
iron  tube  for  the  jib  proper,  and  would  receive  thrust 
strains  only ;  a  strip  encircling  the  pillar  near  the 


FIGS.  179  AND  1 80. — TEMPORARY  CRANKS. 

top  would  answer  as  the  point  of  attachment  for  a 
narrow  beam  of  rectangular  section,  bearing  at  its 
outer  end  on  the  outer  and  upper  end  of  the  boom  ; 
and  on  this  would  play  the  pulley- trolley.  Where 
the  pillar  was  large,  there  could  be  two  tubes  for  the 
boom,  these  coming  together  at  the  top  in  A  style. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  281 

Such  a  temporary  crane  could  be  put  up  in  a  short 
time  by  two  men,  and  would  serve  to  handle  pieces 
cheaply,  which  would  otherwise  cost  a  great  deal  of 
labor  and  consume  a  good  deal  of  time  to  move. 

A  good  swabbing  with  black-lead  (graphite)  and 
tallow  on  the  top  edge  of  each  collar  would  make  the 
device  slew  readily.  The  lower  shoe  would  require 
a  back-strap  to  prevent  accidents,  but  this  need  not 
be  heavy.  The  upper  member  having  a  pull  on  it 
should  encircle  the  pillar  more  completely. 

A  variation  of  this  for  such  places  as  would  not  per- 
mit very  well  of  the  space  about  the  bottom  of  the  pillar 
being  taken  up  by  a  crane,  would  be  to  have  two 
collars  both  well  up  on  the  hight  of  the  pillar ;  the 
lower  one  to  receive  a  shoe  for  the  support  of  a  hori- 
zontal beam  of  rectangular  cross  section,  and  the 
upper  one  to  take  the  downward  thrust  of  a  strap, 
having  attached  to  it  one  or  more  tension  members 
supporting  the  outer  end  of  the  jib.  (See  Figure  180.) 
In  fact,  the  same  pillar  might  have  all  three  collars  so 
that  either  portable  crane  could  be  affixed  to  it  as 
occasion  warranted. 

Lashing  Derrick  Timbers.  With  ordinary  temporary- 
derricks,  consisting  of  two  timbers  lashed  together, 
there  are  many  wrrong  ways  and  but  few  right  ones  of 
lashing  so  as  to  be  sure  of  three  things  :  ( i )  that  the 
lashings  will  hold,  (2)  that  the  timbers  will  neither 
spread  further  nor  come  together  when  the  strain  is 
on  the  lashings,  and  (3)  that  the  lashings  can  be  got 
apart  when  the  work  is  over  and  it  is  time  to  take 
down  the  derrick.  Before  doing  anything  of  this 
kind  it  will  be  well  to  remember  that  of  the  two  usual 
ways  of  lashing,  there  is  one  which  has  a  tendency  to 
*  *  gather  ' '  the  legs  together  when  the  strain  is  put  on 


282 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


it,  and  another  which  has  a  tendency  to  spread  them 
farther  apart  under  the  load.  This  tendency  may  in 
either  case  be  counteracted  during  the  lashing  and 
erection  so  that  it  may  be  made  an  advantage  instead 
of  a  disadvantage. 

Figure  181  shows  two  round  timbers,  A  and  !>,. 
which  are  lashed  together  so  that  there  is  a  tendency 
to  bring  the  "  legs  "  closer.  To  make  this  lashing, 


FIGS.  181,  182  AND  183. — LASHING  DERRICK  TIMBERS. 

fasten  one  end  of  the  rope  to  the  end  of  timber  A 
with  a  "timber  hitch,"  (shown  in  Figure  183  and 
explained  later)  then  pass  it  around  the  horizontal 
crotch  of  the  spars  from  back  to  front  and  left  to  right 
several  times,  bring  it  through  from  the  back  to  the 
front  and  secure  it  to  the  last  cross-turn  with  a  ' (  clove 
hitch."  (Shown  in  Figure  183.) 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  283 

While  making  this  lashing  while  the  timbers  are 
on  the  ground,  the  feet  should  be  brought  closer  to- 
gether than  it  is  desired  that  they  shall  be  when 
erected  and  in  use ;  then  when  raised  they  should  be 
spread  apart,  which  will  tighten  the  lashing. 

To  make  the  ' '  timber  hitch ' '  for  the  purpose  of 
holding  the  free  end  of  the  lashing  in  beginning,  take 
the  free  end  around  the  timber,  then  back  around  the 
standing  part,  then  give  it  a  few  turns  about  itself, 
and  haul  taut.  (See  Figure  182.) 

The  ( '  clove  hitch  ' '  is  made  either  as  at  £",  or  as  at 
F,  Figure  183.  When  made  as  shown  in  £",  it  may 
be  cast  loose  at  once  by  hauling  on  the  free  end  ;  as 
F  is  rather  more  difficult  to  unfasten. 

The  ' '  straight-spread ' '  lashing  is  made  in  the 
same  way  as  the  straight  gathering  kind  shown  in 
Figure  181,  except  that  the  rope  is  passed  through  the 
vertical  crotch  instead  of  through  the  horizontal.  In 
making  it  the  two  legs  should  be  spread  farther  apart 
than  they  are  desired  to  be  when  erected ;  and  then 
bringing  them  together  when  they  are  lashed,  the 
lashing  will  be  tightened. 

Serve  the  free  end  of  the  rope  with  small  cord  to 
keep  it  from  unraveling. 

Temporary  Hoisting.  Once  in  a  while  it  becomes 
necessary  in  almost  any  shop  to  carry  an  extraordin- 
arily heavy  piece  to  or  from  some  quarter  that  is  not 
served  by  the  cranes.  It  is  of  advantage  to  be  able  to 
do  this  even  if  the  floor  is  cluttered  up  with  other 
pieces  which  are  not  ready  to  be  moved.  Very  often 
a  heavy  casting  is  moved  out  of  the  way  to  make 
room  for  another  one  along  the  aisles  between  the 
machine-tools.  Sometimes  it  is  necessary  to  instal  a 
new  machine  in  the  place  of  an  old  one  while  the 


284 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


floor  is  pretty  well  covered  with  work  or  machines ; 
and  then  it  is,  whether  the  shop  has  railways  down 


) 


FIGS.  184,  185  AND  186. — TEMPORARY  HOISTING-DEVICE. 

the  aisles  or  not,  when  it  is  desirable  to  be  able  to 
handle  the  heavy  pieces  from  above  instead  of  along 
the  floor  level.  This  is  often  the  case  in  shops  where 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  285 

there  is  a  big  central  traveling  crane  serving  a  long 
"  nave  M  bounded  by  galleries  on  each  side,  which  it 
cannot  reach  and  is  not  ordinarily  supposed  to 
reach,  even  through  railways  or  by  trucks. 

It  would  seem  a  simple  matter  to  rig  up  a  tem- 
porary overhead  single  railway,  but  very  often  tools 
are  moved  to  right  or  left,  and  work  not  yet  ready  to 
remove  is  taken  away  in  order  to  permit  the  pieces  to 
be  handled  on  the  floor  level. 

Figures  184,  185,  186,  show  a  rig  that  takes  few 
men  to  put  up  and  take  down,  and  by  means  of  which 
quite  heavy  castings,  forgings,  or  other  pieces,  may  be 
lifted  clear  above  everything  on  the  floor  and  got  out 
of  the  way.  We  assume  that  the  shop  has  posts  or 
columns  supporting  its  roof  or  a  story  above,  and  that 
an  iron  I-beam  is  available.  In  this  case  all  that  is 
necessary  is  to  lash  the  beam  to  the  columns  as  shown, 
and  having  straddled  it  with  a  flanged  wheel  of  spool 
shape,  sling  from  this  last  the  hoisting-apparatus, 
whether  it  be  a  regular  differential  gear  or  an  ordin- 
ary double  block  and  tackle.  The  load  may  be  lifted 
clear  and  run  along  as  far  as  the  end  of  the  rail  on  the 
next  post,  and  if  it  is  necessary  to  run  it  at  right 
angles,  it  may  then  be  shifted  to  a  similar  tackle  on 
a  similar  beam  placed  across  the  first,  and  its  other 
end  either  resting  on  a  parallel  beam  or  lashed  at  and 
to  another  post ;  forming  in  this  case  an  obtuse  angle 
with  the  first  beam. 

This  spool  or  flanged  wheel  may  have,  in  order  to 
save  friction,  a  plain  length  of  shafting  of  small  diam- 
eter passing  through  it  and  bearing  on  each  end  a 
sleeve  of  iron  tubing,  bored  inside  to  fit  it  and  turned 
outside  to  receive  eyes  from  which  depend  the  upper 
block  of  the  tackle. 


286  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

If  there  is  any  question  about  the  strength  of  the 
lashings,  they  may  be  supplemented  by  plain  shores 
of  ordinary  timbers,  and  placed  vertically  or  nearly 
so,  alongside  of  the  columns. 

With  two  sets  of  tackle-blocks  a  load  may  be  trans- 
ferred from  almost  any  column  in  the  shop  to  almost 
any  other ;  one  hoist  taking  it  from  the  other.  Thus 
in  one  figure  it  is  carried  in  one  straight  line  along  a 
row  of  columns  while  in  another  it  is  switched  off 
to  a  line  of  columns  at  right  angles  with  that  along 
which  it  first  started. 

As  to  Hoisting-Ropes.  So  you  have  broken  that 
hoisting- rope.  Well,  the  only  wonder  is  that  it  did 
not  break  sooner.  You  use  too  small  sheaves.  Every 
rope  has  some  stiffness ;  any  rope  of  large  diameter 
drawn  over  a  pulley  of  small  diameter  must  stretch 
along  its  outer  edge  (if  the  word  edge  may  be  used) 
and  be  compressed  along  its  inside  edge  ;  and  there 
must  be  friction  between  the  core  and  the  inside  and 
outside  fibres.  The  chafing  between  the  rope  and  the 
sheave  is  only  a  part  of  the  friction  that  goes  to  wear 
out  the  rope.  If  the  internal  strands  or  core  were 
black-leaded,  the  casing- fibres  would  slip  on  them  and 
there  would  be  less  of  the  internal  cutting.  The 
original  strength  of  the  rope  would  not  be  increased, 
in  fact  might  be  slightly  diminished  by  the  plumbago 
overcoming  the  friction  which  alone  holds  the  particles 
of  the  rope  together  in  spinning  ;  but  the  general  re- 
sult would  be  desirable.  Such  rope  is  used  with  suc- 
cess in  large  coal-hoisting  and  conveying  plants. 

Annealing  Crane-Chains.  Don't  wait  for  one  of 
your  crane-chains  to  break  while  there  is  a  heavy  load 
on,  and  let  a  piece  of  work  drop  and  be  ruined,  or 
kill  or  maim  some  one.  The  first  thing  that  you  do 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT  287 

with  a  chain  should  be  to  anneal  it,  unless  you  are 
definitely  certain  that  it  has  been  annealed  by  the 
maker.  Then  from  time  to  time  anneal  it  again. 
Just  heat  it  hot,  and  let  it  cool  slowly  ;  that  is  all 
there  is  to  do. 

Fastening  Hoisting=Ropes  to  Hooks.  Being  in  a 
shop  not  long  ago  when  a  load  fell  by  reason  of  being 
improperly  secured  to  the  hook,  I  have  thought  that 
it  might  be  well  to  show  the  proper  way  of  making 
fast  in  such  a  manner  as  to  get  not  only  speed  in 


FIG.  187. — BLACKVVATL  HITCH. 

making  fast  and  in  letting  go,   but  absolute  security 
as  far  as  slip  of  the  rope  is  concerned. 

Any  ' '  sailor  man  ' '  will  tell  you  that  the  proper 
way  of  making  fast  in  such  case  is  by  a  "  Blackwall 
hitch."  This  is  made  by  laying  the  end  of  the  rope 
across  the  hollow  part  of  the  hook,  (say  from  right 
to  left)  then  taking  the  "  standing  part "  (that  is, 


288  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

not  the  free  end)  back  over  the  neck  of  the  hook  (say 
from  left  to  right)  and  bringing  it  down  in  the  hollow 
of  the  hook  (say  from  right  to  left)  over  the  u  free  " 
part  or  end. 

In  making  this  hitch,  the  loop  is  not  to  be  brought 
down  into  the  hollow  of  the  hook,  but  kept  well  up 
on  the  neck  as,  shown  in  Figure  187. 


FIG.  188.— BILL  HITCH. 

While  at  it,  I  may  as  well  say  that  the  best  form 
of  hook  with  which  I  am  acquainted  is  that  shown 
here,  which  is  of  a  kind  that  does  not  open  out  read- 
ily under  strain,  as  so  many  hooks  do  ;  nor  is  it  apt 
to  break  in  the  curve  when  a  load  is  suddenly  brought 
upon  it,  as  may  be  the  case  when  using  chain,  by 
reason  of  a  link  getting  suddenly  unkinked.  This  is 
the  form  laid  down  by  the  Yale  &  Towne  Co. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  289 

To  make  a  "  bill  hitch,"  which  may  be  considered 
as  slightly  more  secure  than  the  u  Blackwall,"  pro- 
ceed just  as  for  the  "  Blackwall  "  passing  the  free  end 
of  the  rope  along  one  side  of  the  hook  (say  to  the  left) 
then  around  back  of  the  neck  (say  from  right  to  left) 
then  bring  it  in  front  of  the  "bill"  (as  from  left  to  right) 
and  pass  it  under,  between  rope  and  hook  ;  all  as 
shown  in  Figure  188.  Or  go  about  it  the  other  way  to ; 
pass  the  free  end  under  the  standing  part,  from  left  to 
right,  making  a  loop  with  the  ends  to  the  right ;  slip 
this  over  the  bill  and  the  neck  of  the  hook,  (beyond 
the  bill)  so  as  to  let  the  standing  part  pass  into  the 
throat  to  the  left,  and  the  free  end  lie  to  the  right. 

Splicing  Wire  Rope  for  an  Eye.      Where  you   want 


FIG.  189. — SPLICING  EYES  INTO  WIRE  ROPES. 

to  splice  an  ordinary  wire  rope  for  an   eye,  so   that 
it  will  be   as  strong  in  the  splice  as  in   any  other 


290 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


part,  it  will  be  well  to  follow  Admiral  Luce's 
directions,  using  a  stout  thimble  in  the  eye  and  carry- 
ing the  end  of  the  rope  back  about  twelve  feet  along 
the  main  part.  The  two  parts  of  the  rope  are  then 
lashed  together,  first  with  what  are  "called  u  racking 
lashings  "  -4,  which  alternately  pass  over  and  nnder 
the  parts,  forming  a  sort  of  figure  8.  After  you 
have  done  this  for  the  whole  length  of  which  the  end 
has  been  turned  up,  put  on  several  short  lashings  CC. 
The  upper  part  of  the  illustration,  Figure  189,  shows 
how  the  racking  lashings  are  put  on.  When  they 
have  been  put  on  the  full  length,  the  lashings  B  are 
cariied  straight  around  for  the  whole  distance. 

Securing   Brick  Veneers.      Several   methods   have 
been  proposed  and  used  for  securing  brick  veneers  to 


FIG.  190.— SECURING  BRICK  VENEERS 

the  frame  ;  some  of  them  are  expensive,  some  ineffi- 
cient, some  unsightly,  and  some,  two  or  even  all  of 
these.  Here  is  one  that  I  am  using  on  my  new  office 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  291 

front.  The  binders  or  hold-fasts  are  lengths  of  stout 
galvanized  iron  or  steel  telegraph-wire  (plenty  of  which 
is  lying  about  the  street  or  to  be  had  for  a  mere  song 
or  even  for  the  asking)  a  little  longer  than  twice  the 
width  of  the  uprights  plus  one  width  of  the  brick. 
These  pieces  are  bent  into  U  form,  using  a  piece  of 
the  upright  stuff  as  a  former  and  seeing  that  the  bends 
are  square  and  snug.  The  free  ends  are  slightly 
twisted,  and  hammered  flat  in  the  plane  of  the  U. 
They  are  used  as  shown  in  Figure  190,  passing  about 
the  uprights  and  lying  between  the  courses  of  the 
brick- work. 

It  may  be  added  as  a  sort  of  after- thought,  that  in 
picking  up  wire  from  the  street  it  is  well  to  see  that 
both  ends  are  in  sight,  as,  in  these  days  of  electricity, 
many  an  inoffensive-looking  wire  proves  to  be  "  live. ' ' 

Pattern=Room  Ceiling.  In  an  article  descriptive  of 
the  shops  of  a  certain  railway  company  in  New  York 
State  I  read  in  connection  with  the  pattern-room  *  c  the 
inside  of  this  room  is  ceiled  with  waste  matched  pine 
and  varnished,  giving  it  a  very  neat  and  clean  appear- 
ance, besides  making  it  a  very  warm  place  in  winter.  ' ' 

Before  putting  a  varnished  pine  ceiling  in  your  pat- 
tern-shop, or  your  office  either  for  that  matter,  ask 
your  insurance  man  about  it.  Next  get  the  opinion 
of  the  chief  of  the  fire  department.  Then  maybe  you 
will  select  some  other  kind  of  a  ceiling.  Perhaps  you 
have  been  to  a  few  fires  yourself  and  know  how  warm 
one  of  these  ceilings  can  get  either  in  summer  or  in 
winter,  if  the  conditions  are  favorable. 

For  my  part  I  would  rather  have  the  joists  show 
and  be  kalsomined  to  give  light  in  the  room,  than  to 
coat  them  over  with  a  fire-trap  sheathing  of  varnished 
pine  which  would  diminish  the  hight  of  the  room. 


292  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Floor-Timbers  in  High  Buildings.  I  saw  a  nice 
wreck  not  long  ago ;  a  city  machine-shop  that  had 
been  through  a  fire — or  rather  the  fire  had  been 
through  it.  The  whole  shop  was  in  the  cellar.  It 
had  seemed  a  stiff  enough  floor,  but  there  lacked  one 
precaution  that  is  very  seldom  taken  with  high  build- 
ings :  so  supporting  the  timbers  of  the  floor  that,  in 
case  they  break  or  fall,  they  shall  not  pry  the  wall 
over  inward,  and  that  in  case  they  expand  thay  will 
not  push  it  over  outward.  As  ordinarily  constructed, 
and  as  was  the  case  here,  holes  are  left  in  the  walls, 
into  which  the  ends  of  the  joists  set  ;  the  holes  being 
about  the  size  of  the  ends  of  the  joists,  so  that  in  case 
the  floor  falls  the  timbers  are  apt  to  tumble  the  wall 
inward  on  the  contents  of  the  building. 

There  are  two  ways  of  getting  around  this.  One 
is  to  set  the  end  of  the  joist  upon  a  corbel  or  projec- 
tion from  the  face  of  the  wall,  so  that  the  joist  clears 
the  face  of  the  wall  entirely,  and  in  case  it  falls  it  ex- 
erts no  influence  upon  the  wall.  The  other  method 
has  the  same  object  in  view,  and  accomplishes  it  in  a 
simpler  way.  The  holes  made  to  receive  the  joists  are 
made  about  twice  as  high  as  the  joists,  so  that  in  fall- 
ing the  joist  has  no  prying  effect  upon  the  wall. 
These  remarks  apply  to  iron  as  well  as  wooden  beams  ; 
but  for  iron  beams  there  should  be  observed  the  addi- 
tional precaution  to  leave  a  greater  space  between  the 
end  of  the  beam  and  the  wall,  so  that  the  inevitable 
expansion  of  the  beam  from  fire  shall  cause  no  thrust 
outwards,  tending  to  overthrow  the  walls.  It  would 
perhaps  be  as  well  if  all  external  walls  were  held  to- 
gether by  anchor  bolts  with  external  plates,  which, 
although  not  very  sightly,  yet  often  tend  to  hold  the 
wall  up  when  otherwise  it  would  topple  and  fall  out- 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  293 

wards.  Of  course,  if  the  beams  are  properly  cased 
below  with  some  fire-proof  material  or  by  some  heat- 
proof method,  their  expansion  will  be  very  much  less 
than  if  they  are  left  naked  to  the  action  of  the 
heat. 

Floors  and  Joists.  I  see  that  my  neighbor's  new 
shop  floor  has  a  ' '  bagged  ' '  appearance  already.  Few 
Moors  are  stout  enough  and  stiff  enough  to  remain  level 
more  than  a  few  months  at  most  after  being  laid. 
They  will  sag  between  supports,  so  that  even  a  sixteen- 
foot  room  which  will  permit  of  a  marble  being  laid  near 
the  washboard  without  its  rolling  toward  the  center  is 
a  rarity.  The  sag  in  most  ordinary  dwelling-houses 
soon  amounts  to  one- fourth  inch,  and  often  reaches 
one-half  inch.  Putting  the  beams  close  together,  or 
using  thicker  beams,  does  not  seem  to  improve  the 
matter  much,  and  deepening  them  is  rarely  admis- 
sible, because  people  want  all  the  headroom  that  they 
can  get,  and  begrudge  every  inch  of  joist-depth. 
Besides  this,  increasing  either  the  number  or  the 
thickness  or  the  depth  of  joists  costs  money.  But 
there  is  a  way  by  which  a  level  floor  may  be  had 
without  greatly  increasing  the  timber  bill,  and  that 
is  by  cambering  all  the  joists  from  one-fourth  to  one- 
half  inch,  and  starting  with  a  floor  rather  higher  in 
the  middle  than  at  the  two  sides  at  which  the  joists 
end.  An  upward  camber  of  one-half  inch  in  sixteen 
feet  of  a  ten-inch  joist,  the  eamber  being  measured 
with  the  joist  lying  on  its  side,  will  become  only 
about  one-fourth  inch  when  the  joist  is  in  place, 
without  the  flooring  being  laid.  The  weight  of  the 
latter  will  at  once  sag  it  until  it  is  very  nearly  level, 
leaving  for  time  and  the  weight  of  the  furniture  to 
relieve,  not  any  more  than — perhaps  not  so  much  as 


294 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


— the  sag  which  would  have  been  in  the  new  floor  if 
the  joists  had  been  sawed  straight. 

" Strengthening'*  Floors.  One  of  the  very  best 
ways  to  learn  how  to  do  things  right  is  to  note  how 
they  have  been  done  wrong.  Notes  of  bad  practice 
are  danger-posts  which  tend  to  keep  us  in  the  middle 
of  the  road  and  not  let  us  stray  into  the  marshes  and 
pitfalls  on  either  side. 

One  of  the  most  marked  examples  of  how  not  to 
do  it  may  be  seen  (no,  it  may  not  be  seen,  it  is  cov- 
ered up)  in  one  of  the  largest,  finest  and  most  impos- 
ing and  expensive  hotels  in  New  York  City.  It  was 
founder  thought,  after  about  #1,000,000  had  been 


FIGS.  191  AND  192. — "  STRENGTHENING"  FLOORS. 

spent  on  the  structure,  that  the  floors  were  too  weak  \ 
and  of  course  they  had  to  be  strengthened  before  the 
building  could  be  finished  or  used.  As  at  first  con- 
structed, they  were  of  the  ordinary  type,  made  of  I- 
beams  having  flat  composition  arches  sprung  in 
between  them. 

The  conditions  were  such  that  the  floors  could  not 
be  ripped  out ;  but  of  course  they  could  be  strength- 
ened by  any  one  of  several  different  methods.  They 
might  be  trussed  from  below,  or  shored  up  by  more 
columns ;  or  some  of  them  might  be  held  up  by  sus- 
pension rods  from  above.  But  none  of  these  ways 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  295 

seemed  to  suit  the  architect.  The  highly  original 
plan  which  he  adopted  is  shown  in  Figure  192,  in 
which  it  will  be  seen  that  he  simply  laid  down  on 
each  I- beam  an  inverted  deck-beam,  which  he  bolted 
fast  to  the  I-beam  by  its  flanges  ;  then  he  sprung  an 
arch  of  corrugated  iron  between  each  pair  of  these 
deck-beams,  and  leveled  the  whole  thing  off  with 
concrete,  on  which  the  floor-boards,  or  the  tiling,  as 
the  case  might  be,  were  laid. 

This  method  of  strengthening  arches  beats  all 
hollow  the  scheme  of  lightening  the  load  on  the  horse 
that  was  carrying  a  man  in  the  saddle  and  a  small 
boy  on  the  crupper,  by  the  man  taking  the  small  boy 
in  his  arms. 

A  Good  Shop  Floor.  About  as  good  a  shop  floor  or 
yard  pavement  as  you  can  put  in  for  such  a  place  is 
made  of  cedar  blocks  say  six  inches  long,  and  of  the 
diameter  of  the  tree — four  to  eight  inches.  Ram 
down  some  ashes  so  that  they  will  be  level,  then  put 
your  cedar  blocks  on  them,  close  together,  and  fill  up 
between  them  with  a  grouting  of  asphalt  and  gravel 
or  asphalt  and  sharp  sand.  Wagon- wheels  won't 
' '  phaze  ' '  such  a  floor  or  pavement. 

You  may  also  make  a  good  shop  floor  by  tamping 
down  first  gravel  and  then  sand,  and  rolling  well  with 
a  heavy  roller ;  next  laying  down  inch  boards  that 
have  both  sides  coated  with  heavy  tar,  and  then  other 
boards  crosswise  of  these. 

Light  Floors.  That  printing-press  runs  hard  be- 
cause the  floor  is  too  light,  and  after  the  owner  had 
got  this  press  running  all  right  he  put  alongside  of  it 
another  one  which  sprung  the  floor  and  twisted  this 
one.  You  will  have  to  level  it  up ;  although  the 
probabilities  are  that  after  you  have  done  so,  the  first 


296  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

time  he  puts  down  a  big  stack  of  paper  alongside  of  the 
new  press,  the  floor  will  sag  again.  The  best  way  is 
to  shore  up  the  floor  from  below,  or  if  that  is  not  con- 
venient, to  run  a  big  beam  across  above  there,  and 
hang  the  middle  of  the  floor  to  it  by  a  stout  iron  rod 
with  a  big  washer  and  two  good  bridge-nuts  at  each 
end. 

A  New  Wrinkle  in  Car=Shops  is  to  dig  a  long  pit 
and  lay  in  it  a  track  to  hold  three  or  four  cars,  their 
floors  coming  about  the  level  of  the  shop  floor. 

Shop=Lighting.  There  is  a  udim  religious  light" 
over  in  the  north-west  corner  of  your  shop,  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  it  takes  the  men  about  seven  times 
as  long  to  make  an  adjustment  or  to  read  a  measure- 
ment as  in  the  corner  diagonally  opposite.  Your 
pattern-shop  wall  comes  close  to  the  window  in  the 
dark  corner,  and  you  have  outside  a  wire  screen,  that 
was  put  on  years  ago  before  the  pattern-shop  was  built, 
to  keep  boys  from  breaking  the  windows.  Inside  that 
wire  screen  there  is  a  coating  of  grime  and  dirt  that  is 
just  as  old  as  the  pattern-shop — about  five  years,  if  I 
remember  rightly.  If  you  will  take  down  the  screen 
(which  is  of  no  use) ,  that  will  give  you  a  trifle  more 
light  and  give  you  a  chance  to  send  a  man  outside 
with  a  hose  and  a  brush  and  wash  down  the  windows, 
and  then  if  you  will  send  another  out  with  a  bucket 
of  whitewash,  a  wide  brush,  and  suitable  instructions 
to  brighten  up  both  the  walls  that  face  each  other  in 
that  manner,  you  will  have  light  reflected  into  the 
shop,  and  the  men  will  be  able  to  see  whether  a  thing 
is  eleven- thirty-seconds  or  three-eighths.  In  this 
country,  at  least,  sunlight  costs  practically  nothing ; 
why  not  use  it  and  plenty  of  it,  particularly  when  your 
men  want  it  and  are  losing  time  for  lack  of  it  ?  If  there 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  297 

comes  in  too  much  for  their  eyesight  they  can  put  up 
a  temporary  sheet  of  brown  paper  ;  but  I  guess  that 
in  that  particular  geographical  corner,  and  as  long  as 
the  pattern-shop  stands  there,  there  will  not  be  any 
blinking,  especially  of  afternoons. 

Shop  Windows.  It  would  seem  that  a  window  6 
by  3  J  feet  would  give  about  the  same  amount  of  light 
through,  back  of  it,  whether  it  was  high  up  or  low 
down  ;  but  such  is  not  the  case.  By  a  well-known 
law  of  optics,  "  the  angle  of  incidence  is  equal  to  the 
angle  of  reflection,  "  so  that  light  which  strikes  on 
the  ceiling  from  a  low-down  window  reaches  the  floor 
near  the  wall  in  which  the  window  is  placed  ;  while  a 
window  of  the  same  size,  higher  up,  will  allow  the 
rays  to  reach  farther  back  on  the  floor.  This  is  but 
a  trifle,  but  as  Michael  Angelo  said,  "trifles  make 
perfection.  n 

Where  to  Put  Shop  Lights.  There  are  shops  where 
the  men  cannot  do  so  much  work  with  arc  lights 
hung  up  far  above  them  as  they  could  with  an  ordi- 
nary oil  lamp  or  stub-end  of  a  candle.  The  reason  is 
that  the  arc  light  does  two  things — it  casts  dark 
shadows,  and  it  blinds  the  eyes  of  the  men  by  being 
too  concentrated.  It  is  much  better  to  get  the  same 
amount  of  light  nearer  the  work,  even  at  the  much 
greater  cost  per  candle-power  of  the  incandescent  light. 
I  say  "  per  candle-power,  "  for  while  a  i,ooo-candle- 
power  arc  light  may  not  cost  more  than  one-half  to 
one- third  horse- power  to  maintain,  1,000  candle- 
power  of  incandescent  light  (say  sixty  i6-candle 
lamps)  cannot  be  got  for  less  than  six-horse-power, 
and  usually  takes  nine.  But  the  fact  of  having  such 
light  right  down  at  the  work  enables  better  work  to 
t>e  done  where  the  same  light  is  given,  or  enables 


298  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

much  less  candle-power  to  suffice ;  for  it  is  a  well- 
known  rule  of  lighting  that  one  candle-power  one 
foot  from  the  work  is  equal  to  four  at  a  distance  of 
two  feet,  sixteen  at  a  distance  of  four  feet,  and  so  on. 

Cool  Water  for  Shops.  The  temperature  of  the 
earth  below  the  top  ten  or  twelve  feet  seldom  varies 
very  much,  particularly  where  the  surface  is  covered 
with  a  building,  so  as  to  prevent  the  sun  heating  and 
the  winds  cooling  it.  Taking  advantage  of  this  fact, 
one  may  at  no  very  great  expense  make  the  drinking- 
water  of  any  shop  much  cooler  in  summer  than  it  is 
apt  to  be  without  such  measures  being  taken.  A 
trench  is  dug  as  narrow  as  possible,  and  as  deep  as 
may  be  convenient,  running  the  entire  length  of  the 
cellar.  In  this  there  is  laid  an  iron  pipe  u  coil,"  as 
a  zigzag  or  alternate  run  is  generally  called,  the  pipe 
being  at  least  double  the  capacity  of  the  service-line 
of  the  house.  Upright  lines  are  run  from  this  above- 
ground  for  connection  with  the  street  mains  and  with 
the  service-pipes,  and  the  trench  then  filled  in.  When 
the  connections  are  made,  the  water  from  the  street 
(wanned  as  it  generally  is  by  exposure  to  the  sun's 
rays  in  a  shallow  reservoir,  and  often  not  improved 
by  its  passage  through  shallow-laid  mains)  has  to 
make  several  turns  through  the  earth-cooled  coil  be- 
fore it  reaches  the  service-pipe.  The  same  effect  may 
be  produced,  where  well-digging  or  boring  apparatus 
are  at  hand,  by  sinking  a  vertical  cooling- pipe  of 
several  turns  in  a  well  of  small  diameter,  and  then 
filling  in  the  well. 

Shapley  and  his  Shaft.  Shapley  had  a  leading, 
shaft  that  he  had  been  trying  for  about  ten  years  to 
convince  himself  was  heavy  enough  for  the  power 
which  he  had  been  putting  through  it ;  and  after  all 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  299 

these  years  of  wabbling  about  from  one  side  of  the 
question  to  the  other,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
it  must  go.  So  he  ripped  out  the  three-inch  shaft 
and  put  in  a  four.  It  cost  him  considerable  money 
and  took  a  good  deal  of  time ;  and  of  course  the  earn- 
ings of  the  shop  during  that  time  very  much  lessened. 
And  after  all  that,  fancy  his  feelings  when  one  of  his 
sons  came  back  from  college  and  said  to  him  :  * l  Why, 
pop,  that's  rather  a  fool  job  that  you  have  been  pay- 
ing for!  Why  didn't  you  just  turn  the  old  line 
around  a  little  faster  and  alter  the  pulleys  at  each  end  ? 
You  don't  take  any  power  off  the  line  between  the 
ends,  and  as  it  is,  both  the  old  shaft  and  •  the  new 
one  have  been  speeded  too  slow  for  the  machinery  at 
the  end  furthest  from  the  engine." 

Shapley  feels  something  like  the  man  who  had 
been  winding  up  a  clock  every  day  for  twenty  years 
and  then  found  out  that  it  was  a  twenty-eight-day 
clock.  But  perhaps  there  are  more  Shapleys  in  this 
great  country  of  ours. 

Jack-Shaft  Stands.  Some  people  seem  to  think 
that  any  kind  of  a  floor-stand  is  good  enough  for  a 
jack-shaft ;  whereas  it  should  get  all  that  is  rigid,  ad- 
justable, self-oiling  and  convenient.  The  jack-shaft 
gets  hard  work  and  plenty  of  it,  usually  heavy  belt- 
ing and  high  speeds,  and  gets  more  work  than  any 
other  part  of  the  system,  first  because  all  the  power 
goes  through  it ;  and  second,  because  it  is  always  in 
motion  so  long  as  there  is  anything  to  be  turned. 
The  stand  should  be  rigid  both  laterally  and  fore-and- 
aft  ;  it  should  have  an  adjustable  pillow-block  with 
self-oiling  bearings  and  both  lateral  and  vertical  ad- 
justment. With  such  stands  there  need  be  no  trouble 


3oo  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

if  the  bearings  are  of  proper  dimensions  and  material 
and  the  lubrication  is  suitable. 

Lining  up  Shafting.  In  lining  up  shafting  the 
problem  is  to  get  the  line  not  only  straight  but  level. 
A  line  may  as  a  general  thing  be  straight,  without  be- 
ing level  :  that  is,  a  center- line  drawn  through  the 
whole  system  might  pass  through  the  exact  center  of 
every  section  and  yet  one  end  might  be  higher  than 
the  other.  It  might  be  level  without  being  straight ; 
thus  each  section  might  have  kinks  in  it,  or  the  whole 
line  might  be  bowed  in  a  horizontal  plane;  yet  it  might 
all  show  up  perfectly  level  by  any  system  tried. 

There  are  two  ways  by  which  the  level  of  a  line  may 
be  found  ;  and  if  not  level,  by  which  it  may  be  made 
so.  One  is  by  the  water  or  spirit-level,  and  the  other 
by  the  plumb-line. 

Whatever  method  be  employed  it  must  be  available 
for  every  kind  of  a  line  that  one  is  liable  to  find ;  that 
is,  those  which  have  great  distances  between  hangers, 
and  those  which  are  very  much  interrupted  by  them. 

At  present  I  shall  show  a  few  ways  by  which  the 
plumb-bob  is  used.  We  shall  have  to  assume  that  we 
believe  or  rather  know  certainly  that  a  level  line  or 
plane  is  at  right  angles  to  a  vertical  line  or  plane  ;  and 
that  a  plumb-line  is  a  certain  method  by  which  to 
ascertain  the  verticality  of  anything  already  erected, 
or  by  which  to  erect  or  adjust  anything  absolutely 
vertical. 

Referring  to  Figure  193,  in  which  S  is  a  line  of 
shafting  presumed  to  be  already  erected  as  nearly  level 
as  the  eye  can  tell,  and  ./Tone  of  the  hangers,  we  have 
here  a  device  by  which  the  line  on  both  sides  of  the 
hangers  may  be  leveled  at  once  ;  and  of  course,  the 
same  appliance  may  be  and  should  be  set  up  between 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


301 


FIGS.  193  TO  196. — LINING  UP  SHAFTING. 


302  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

hangers.  A  and  B  are  two  pieces  of  board  each  of 
which  has  a  lengthwise  center-line  scribed  thereon  ; 
and  has  also  portions  cut  away  so  as  to  leave  notched 
pieces,  truly  centered,  and  both  alike,  by  which  these 
may  be  hung  from  the  shaft.  These  notches  are  made 
correct  by  the  two  pieces  being  screwed  together  and 
of  a  truly-centered  hole  with  a  diameter  within  two 
inches  of  the  width  of  the  boards  made  through  both 
at  once.  Then  tangents  are  drawn  to  the  sides  of 
the  hole,  at  equal  angles  with  the  center-line,  and  the 
stuff  is  cut  away  so  as  to  present  the  appearance 
shown  in  the  end  view  Figure  193.  The  longer  A 
is,  the  better ;  B  may  be  about  two  feet.  Brace- 
pieces  C,  D  and  E  are  then  made,  and  E  is  first  at- 
tached so  as  to  be  as  nearly  as  possible  square  with 
both  A  and  B,  which  two  should  then  be  parallel. 
One  screw  is  at  each  of  the  joints  F  and  G.  Then 
C  is  attached  to  B  by  one  screw  at  K ;  then  it  is  at- 
tached to  A  at  B  by  one  screw,  after  A  and  B  have 
been  brought  absolutely  square  with  E.  This  being 
done,  one  screw  is  put  at  each  of  the  places  Jf,  N 
and  0  ;  a  distance-piece  as  thick  as  brace  E  being  re- 
quired at  M.  When  the  frame  is  thus  pinned  together, 
it  should  be  absolutely  rigid,  and  the  squareness  of 
the  working-edge  of  A  (that  shown  to  the  left)  with 
the  upper  or  working-edge  of  E  should  be  well  tested. 
This  being  done,  if  the  system  is  hung  on  the  shaft 
as  shown  in  Figure  193,  a  plumb-line  suspended  along 
the  working-edge  of  A  will  show  this  edge  to  be 
absolutely  vertical  if  the  shaft  is  absolutely  level.  It 
is  well  to  check  the  accuracy  of  this,  ( i )  by  sliding 
the  device  along  the  shaft  from  one  end  to  the  other, 
skipping  the  hangers  and  couplings  when  they  are 
encountered,  and  then  (2)  running  it  along  the  line 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  303 

in   the   same  way,    the  other  way  to  ;  that   is,    with 
the  working-edge  towards  the  other  end  of  the  shaft. 

To  make  the  plumb-bob  come  to  rest  more  quickly 
than  it  otherwise  would,  it  may  be  allowed  to  hang 
in  a  bucket  of  water.  A  may  be  strengthened  where 
cut  away,  by  a  reinforcing-strip  jR. 

A  variation  of  this  device  is  shown  in  Figure  195, 
in  which  A  is  a  piece  of  four-by-four-inch  scantling, 
along  which  a  lengthwise  center-line  has  been  scribed, 
top  and  bottom,  and  in  which  an  angular  groove  has 
been  cut,  truly  parallel  with  these  center-lines.  This 
work  may  be  done  on  an  ordinary  patternmaker's 
saw-bench.  Then  a  piece  B  with  one  perfectly 
straight  working-edge  is  screwed  to  A  absolutely  at 
right  angles  to  the  top  and  bottom  edges  of  .4.  A 
brace-piece  C  extends  from  A  to  B  ;  and  the  plumb- 
line  is  hung  along  the  working-edge  of  B  as  shown 
in  Figure  195. 

Instead  of  having  long  heavy  pieces  of  scantling, 
say  six  feet  long,  as  shown  in  Figure  195,  a  two- foot 
piece  may  be  scribed,  grooved  and  then  sawed  across 
in  two,  and  the  two  pieces  joined  in  true  parallel  by 
a  lengthwise  piece  D ;  then  the  piece  B  is  made  square 
with  the  joined  grooved  pieces  and  the  brace  C  put 
in  to  keep  them  stiff.  If  necessary,  another  brace  E 
may  be  screwed  between  A  and  C.  (See  Figure  196. ) 

All  three  of  these  devices  may  be  unscrewed  so  as 
to  make  them  take  up  less  room  in  storage ;  but  be- 
fore doing  this,  all  the  parts  should  be  marked,  and 
the  screws  should  be  coated  with  a  mixture  of  graph- 
ite and  tallow  and  tied  up  in  a  paper  that  is  fastened 
to  one  of  the  pieces.  Then  all  the  pieces  should  be 
fastened  together. 

Any  one  of  these  three  rigs  may  be  used   with  a 


304  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

level  to  check  the  accuracy  of  the  plumb-line,  if 
desired. 

The  second  and  third  styles  cannot  straddle  hangers 
very  well ;  but  the  third  one  can  be  made  to  do  so  by 
a  slight  modification  as  shown  in  Figure  194;  and 
where  a  hanger  is  of  an  especially  difficult  pat- 
tern to  ' '  get  true  ' '  the  connecting-piece  may  be  at- 
tached to  one  of  the  grooved  pieces  by  thumb-screws 
at  Q  Q. 

Barbarous  Shaft-Couplings.  They  had  a  sad  acci- 
dent over  the  way,  and  one  that  might  just  as  well 
have  been  here,  for  all  the  precautions  you  have  taken 
to  prevent  the  very  same  thing  happening.  A  man 
was  fixing  a  belt-shifter;  his  sleeve  caught  in  a 
flange  coupling,  and  his  arm  was  torn  out  of  its  socket 
before  help  could  get  to  him.  He  will  die,  of  course. 
Every  one  of  those  nuts  which  sticks  out  from  a  plate 
coupling  invites  accident.  I  don't  see  why  people 
will  hold  on  to  such  barbarisms.  Considered  as  coup- 
lings they  are  not  a  success.  They  are  big,  heavy 
and  expensive,  take  time  to  put  up  and  time  to  take 
down  ;  and  half  the  time  when  you  try  to  take  them 
down  you  find  that  they  have  rusted  together.  If  a 
belt  gets  thrown  off  a  pulley,  and  its  edge  strikes  one 
of  them,  it  is  ruined.  If  it  is  a  rubber  belt,  that  is  the 
end  of  it ;  you  can't  even  cut  it  down  and  make  a  nar- 
rower one  out  of  it.  And  in  case  of  some  poor  devil's 
sleeve — or  what  is  worse,  some  poor  girl's  hair — get- 
ting caught,  there  is  a  horrible  accident  which  no  mere 
money  can  measure,  for  which  no  mere  money  can  pay. 
If  people  will  put  up  such  abominations,  they  should 
be  compelled  to  case  them  in,  or  to  have  them  so  con- 
structed that  there  are  no  projecting  parts  like  bolt- 
ends.  Any  one  who  has  ever  used  a  compression- 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  305 

coupling  knows  how  much  more  handy  it  is  than  the 
other — that  is,  if  you  get  the  kind  that  can  be  taken 
down  as  readily  as  it  is  put  up.  Some  of  them  are  easy 
to  screw  up  and  difficult  to  take  off ;  they  are  like 
lobsters,  that  are  said  not  to  let  go  until  it  thunders 
or  until  the  sun  goes  down. 

Pulley=-Balancing.  If  some  one  were  to  put  a  heavy 
eccentric  on  one  of  your  shafts  and  let  it  hang  with 
one  big  side  and  one  little  one,  you  would  not  like 
the  effect  that  it  produced  ;  you  would  complain  that 
the  motion  was  wearing  on  one  side  of  the  shaft,  and 
that  it  made  the  machinery  run  unevenly.  But 
while  you  may  not  have  anything  that  really  sticks 
out  farther  on  one  side  than  the  other,  in  the  way  of 
an  eccentric,  you  have  on  your  shaft  there  a  pulley 
that  is  jarring  things  and  wearing  the  journals  on 
one  side — a  big  pulley  that  is  very  much  out  of 
balance.  I  suppose  that  somebody,  when  he  put  up 
that  pulley,  or  before  he  put  it  up,  gave  it  what  is 
mis-called  ' l  standing  balance  ' ' ;  which  is  about  the 
kind  of  a  balance  that  the  tight-rope  walker  has  when 
he  is  lying  in  bed  sleeping — a  very  safe  balance  under 
the  circumstances,  but  not  worth  a  continental  for 
purposes  of  tight- rope  walking.  Standing  balance  is 
of  no  more  use  to  a  running  pulley  than  a  life-pre- 
server in  some  one's  store  on  Broadway  would  be  to 
a  man  who  fell  overboard  in  mid-ocean. 

But  if  I  had  a  dollar  for  every  pulley  running  in 
this  country — or  even  in  the  city  of  New  York — on 
standing  balance  only,  I  would  be  rich  enough  to 
make  some  very  decent  Christmas  presents.  What  a 
pulley  wants — or  rather  needs — is  running  balance. 
It  should  be  tested  when  it  is  running,  in  the  position 
in  which  it  is  run,  and  at  the  speed  at  which  it  is  to 


306 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


run.  Then  if  it  has  any  eccentricities  of  size  or 
weight  they  will  develop  and  may  be  corrected  before 
it  is  put  to  work  shaking  buildings. 

Some  so-called   mechanics  think  that,  when   they 
have  run  a  mandrel  through  a  pulley  and  let  it  roll 

/*>  r\  r\  \r^ 


n 


-- 

-v,    ! 

r 

T"* 

V 

£ 

FIGS.  197  TO  200. — PULLEY-BALANCING. 

about  a  bit  on  two  straight-edges  placed  on  trestles, 
they  have  got  a  perfect  balance  when  they  have 
reached  that  condition,  by  adding  weights  or  boring 
holes,  in  which  the  pulley  will  lie  indifferently 
with  any  side  up.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  such  bal- 
ancing- may  make  things  worse  than  before,  when  the 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  307 

pulley  is  running  (and  most  pulleys  are  meant  to  be 
used  running) . 

We  will  suppose  a  pulley  such  as  that  shown  in 
Figure  197,  where  there  is  an  excess  of  weight  at  A, 
over  in  one  edge.  Of  course  when  put  on  the 
straight-edges  it  tends  to  hang  with  the  A  side  down. 

Any  fool  knows  that  the  AB  side,  taken  as  a  whole, 
is  heavier  than  the  CD  side, directly  opposite.  And  any 
fool  knows  that  if  weight  enough  was  added  anywhere 
along  the  CD  side,  or  if  weight  was  taken  from  the 
AB  side,  the  pulley  would  stand  with  A B  up  as  well 
as  with  AB  down.  Well,  we  will  suppose  that  we 
add  weight  enough  at  Z>,  diagonally  across  from  A , 
to  make  the  pulley  stand  with  AB  up  just  as  willing- 
ly as  with  AB  down.  Now  put  that  pulley  on  a 
shaft  and  run  it  fast.  The  tendency  of  the  weight 
at  A  is  to  fly  tangentially  from  the  pulley,  and  so 
long  as  it  can  not  fly  off  so,  to  cause  a  radial  strain 
in  a  direction  from  the  axis  to  the  circumference. 
The  heavy  point  A  tends  to  get  as  far  as  possible 
from  the  central  line  ;  and  it  can  do  this  only  by 
twisting  the  pulley  in  the  direction  of  the  arrow  A, 
Figure  198.  But  the  point  D  being  extra  heavy  tends 
to  bring  a  strain  on  the  shaft  in  the  direction  of  the 
arrow  D,  Figure  198.  If  that  don't  tend  to  bend  a 
shaft  then  I  know  nothing  of  mechanics. 

Suppose  that  instead  of  adding  weight  at  D,  diag- 
onally opposite  to  A,  a  piece  of  the  proper  weight  had 
been  taken  out  at  B,  on  the  heavy  side  but  on  the 
opposite  edge  from  A .  That  would  also  give  a  good 
standing  balance  ;  but  its  only  effect  when  the  pulley 
was  running  would  be  to  intensify  the  twisting  action 
of  A. 

But  suppose  that  instead  of  adding  weight  at  Z>, 


308 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


diagonally  opposite  Ay  it  be  added  in  sufficient  amount 
(just  the  same  amount  as  would  be  necessary  at  Z>) 
at  0,  diametrically  opposite  A.  It  would  of  course 
give  proper  standing  balance  ;  and  when  the  pulley 
was  running  at  high  speed  it  would  tend  to  throw  the 
pulley  in  the  direction  of  the  arrow  (7,  Figure  199,  or 
to  bend  the  shaft  exactly  in  the  opposite  direction  from 
that  in  which  the  weight  at  A  tended  to  bend  it ;  and 
the  balance  thus  obtained  could  be  perfect. 

The  best  results  will  be  got  if  instead  of  running 
the  pulley  on  a  horizontal  shaft  it  be  balanced  on  a 
cock-head  as  shown  in  Figure  200,  in  the  manner  of  a 
millstone ;  the  pivot  being  at  its  absolute  center  of 
bulk  ;  that  is,  not  only  in  the  actual  line  but  in  the 
plane  that  divides  it  in  two  at  right  angles  to  the  shaft. 

These  same  remarks  apply  to  balancing  fly-wheels, 
millstones,  etc.,  as  well  as  to  ordinary  driving-pulleys. 

Hanging  up  a  Clutch  Pulley.  In  these  days  of 
high-speed  shafting  there  is  needed  a  frictional  clutch 


FIG.  201. — HANGING  UP  A  CLUTCH  PULLEY. 

wheel  that  may  be  set  loose   or   connected   with   the 
shaft.     Where  a  machine  is  used  about  once  a  week 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


309 


for  an  hour,  and  the  loose  pulley  is  wearing  the  shaft 
all  the  rest  of  the  time,  there  seems  to  be  an  unnec- 
essary percentage  of  waste  of  friction.  To  do  away 
with  this  there  has  been  devised  an  arrangement 
having  a  counterpoise  hung  from  the  overhead  floor- 
beams,  to  be  attached  to  the  pulley  when  it  is  brought 
to  rest,  so  as  to  take  the  strain  from  the  shaft.  As 
the  tendency  of  the  belt-pull  and  the  pulley- weight  is 
to  exert  a  force  in  the  direction  shown  by  the  line  A 
in  Figure  201,  the  remedy  is  to  apply  an  equal 
and  opposite  force  to  the  wheel  by  a  lever  and  counter- 
weight B. 

Loose  Pulleys  as  ordinarily  made  without  any 
flanges  are  apt  to  cut  the  edges  of  the  belt.  The  best 
form  is  that  which  I  first  saw  about  1876  ;  the  loose 
pulley  being  very  much  smaller  than  the  ' '  tight ' ' 
one  but  having  a  beveled  flange  leading  up  to  the 
same  diameter  as  that  of  the  latter.  The  belt  runs 


C 


FIG.  202. — COMMON  SENSE  LOOSE  PULLEY.   (CRAFT.) 

on  this  quietly,  and  with  but  little  tension  ;  and  but 
very  slight  motion  of  the  shipper  is  necessary  to 
cause  it  to  climb  the  beveled  flange. 


310  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

A  less  desirable  form  has,  instead  of  the  beveled 
flange,  one  at  right  angles  to  the  face  of  the  loose 
pulley,  and  of  the  same  diameter  as  that  of  the 
tight  one. 

Keying  Pulleys  on  Shafts.  Over  in  England  an 
American  mechanic  who  has  established  a  big  shop 
near  Manchester  has  got  up  a  new  way  of  keying 
pulleys  and  such  things  on  shafts.  Instead  of  mak- 
ing a  shallow  groove  in  the  shaft,  parallel  with  its 
length,  and  one  in  the  pulley-hub  to  correspond,  and 
putting  in  a  key  that  runs  lengthwise  of  the  shaft, 


FIG.  203. — KEYING  PULLEYS  ON  SHAFTS. 

he  cotters  deeply  into  the  shaft,  making  a  narrow 
groove  with  rounded  ends,  that  runs  lengthwise  of 
the  shaft;  and  making  a  similar  deep  cotter-cut 
through  the  hub,  he  puts  in  a  flat  steel  key  with 
rounded  edges  at  right-angles  to  the  shaft.  He  has 
a  machine  which  makes  such  cotter-grooves  of  several 
standard  sizes,  and  another  one  which  makes  the 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  311 

keys  of  standard  sections  and  cuts  them  off  to  con- 
venient lengths  ;  so  that  all  that  is  required  to  do  is 
to  mark  on  the  drawings  "  No.  5  Key,"  or  whatever 
size  it  is.  Then  the  work  of  cottering  can  be  done 
without  any  special  instructions,  and  the  key  can  be 
taken  out  of  stock  in  the  same  manner  as  wire  nails 
are. 

A  Split  Pulley  by  all  means.  Do  you  want  to  have 
to  stop  the  whole  shop  every  time  you  want  to  change 
a  pulley  ?  How  else  are  you  going  to  back  out  that 
long  line  of  shafting,  loaded  up  with  solid  pulleys  ? 
Don't  you  know  that  a  large  split  pulley  can  be  put 
up  with  less  labor  and  in  shorter  time  than  a  solid  one  ? 

Too  Much  Adjustability.  There  can  be  such  a  thing 
as  too  much  adjustability.  There  are  many  cases 
where  it  is  very  useful  to  have  a  means  of  taking  up 
wear  or  lost  motion  ;  but  if  such  a  means  is  open  to 
the  objection  that  when  a  part  is  once  brought  into  its 
proper  place  it  cannot  be  kept  there,  the  adjustability 
may  be  a  cause  of  damage  instead  of  saving  and  con- 
venience. For  example — we  have  the  hangers  of  tight 
and  loose  pulleys.  In  order  to  enable  the  excess  of 
wear  of  the  boxes  in  one  end  over  that  in  the  other 
to  be  taken  up,  such  hangers  are  often  made  with 
slotted  palms  ;  but  there  is  nothing  easier  than  for  the 
pulley  of  the  belt  (usually  excessive)  to  draw  the 
hanger  around  just  on  the  very  end  where  wear  is 
likely  to  occur  anyhow,  so  that,  unless  such  hangers 
have  a  means  of  fastening  them  when  once  aligned, 
they  will  slew  around  and  give  trouble.  If  the  makers 
have  not  done  this  for  you,  you  will  have  to  do  it  for 
yourself  by  drilling  a  small  hole  through  which  to  pass 
a  bolt,  lag-screw  or  other  locking-device.  If  the 
hangers  are  already  up,  and  trouble  is  found  with  their 


3I2 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


slewing,  then  a  chock  of  hard  wood  may  be  screwed 
on  the  timbers  so  as  to  receive  the  thrust  of  the  palm 
and  keep  it  in  place. 

Why   Most   Planer-Belts  do   not  Last  Long.     One 

reason  is  that  their  edges  are  spoiled  by  the  constant 
action  of  the  shifter  ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of 
many  other  belts  which  are  shifted  by  the  ordinary 
pole  or  by  even  a  regular  shifter.  To  lessen  the  wear 


FIG.  204. — PLANER-BELT  SHIFTER. 

and  tear  and  prolong  the  life  of  the  belt,  make  the 
shifter  to  bear  against  the  edges  of  the  belt  by  grooved 
rollers  or  wheels  instead  of  by  a  bare  edge ;  the  wheels 
of  rollers  will  rotate  and  be  easy  on  the  belt-edges. 

Belt-Shifter.     For  a  belt-shifter  which  will  always 
be  in  place  and  will  cost  little  or  nothing,  the  rig 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT  313 

shown  in  Figure  205  may  be  recommended.  Its  up- 
per end  has  a  slightly  hooked  point  which  may  be  in- 
serted in  any  one  of  several  holes  having  a  distance 
between  centers  equal  to  that  between  pulley- faces, 


FIG.  205. — BELT-SHIFTER. 

where  there  is  a  stepped  pulley.  According  to  which 
pulley  the  belt  is  on,  this  hook  is  inserted  in  the 
proper  hole. 

Belt-Handler.  The  device  shown  in  Figure  206  is 
handy  for  putting  a  belt  on  a  pulley  without  danger 
or  inconvenience.  Any  one  who  has  reached  out 
for  a  belt  with  an  ordinary  pole  (the  ones^which  are 
at  hand  usually  seem  to  have  rounded  ends  so  that 
their  hold  of  a  belt  is  reduced  to  a  minimum)  knows 
how  many  trials  are  often  necessary  before  a  running 
belt  that  has  been  thrown  off  can  be  lifted  from  the 


3i4  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

shaft  and  got  to  remain  on  the  pulley  so  as  to  drive 
it.  One's  strength  is  not  exerted  to  advantage 
under  such  circumstances,  and  one's  temper  is  surely 
tried  to  its  utmost.  If  the  belt  is  somewhat  tight  and 
its  motion  rather  rapid,  the  difficulty  is  increased. 


FIG.  206. — BELT-HANDLER. 

The  contrivance  shown  here  is  an  English  idea  for 
the  good  working  of  which  I  can  vouch,  having 
made,  used,  and  sold  such  shifters  in  this  country. 
The  wheel  A,  with  a  spike  in  its  center,  rotates  easily 
in  a  journal  on  the  socket  B  which  fits  on  a  pole  C. 

A  Combined  Belt=Shifter  and  Brake  for  such  ma- 
chines as  vertical  jig-saws  has  a  brake  so  fastened  to 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  315 

the  lever  of  the  belt-shifter,  as  to  rub  against  the  flat 
side  of  the  fast  pulley,  after  it  has  thrown  off  the  belt. 

Transmission  by  Gearing.  It  is  not  enough  that 
the  teeth  of  a  pair  of  gear-wheels  simply  seize  hold  of 
each  other,  and  that  the  pressure  from  one  set  forces 
the  other  set  around.  This  action  must  be  smooth 
and  regular,  and  not  by  fits  and  starts  ;  ought  to  be 
practically  noiseless ;  should  be  accompanied  by  a 
minimum  of  wear,  and  not  occasion  crowding  apart 
of  the  wheels,  which  wrould  cause  great  axial  friction ; 
this  last  being  co-existent  with  wear  of  journals  and 
bearings,  waste  of  lubricants  and  loss  of  power.  And 
under  average  circumstances  every  gear  of  a  given 
pitch  should  mesh  properly  with  every  other  of  the 
same  pitch,  from  rack  to  pinions  as  low  as  twelve  teeth. 

A  Wrinkle  About  Gear- Wheels.  You  complain  that 
your  gear-wheels  wear  irregularly.  That  is  very 
largely  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  number  of  teeth  in 
one  is  a  multiple  of  that  in  the  other.  Every  so  many 
turns,  the  same  pair  of  teeth  come  together.  It  hap- 
pens that  some  cf  the  teeth  are  harder  than  others  ; 
and  ever\-  so  many  turns  you  have  a  hard  tooth  wear- 
ing against  a  soft  one.  Now,  if  the  teeth  were  1 'prime' ' 
to  each  other,  as  for  instance  eighteen  and  nineteen, 
or  eighteen  and  thirty-one,  or  any  other  pairs  of  num- 
bers which  had  no  common  divisor,  you  would  find 
that  they  would  last  longer ;  and  in  this  case  there  is 
110  more  need  for  having  eighteen  to  thirty  than 
eighteen  to  thirty-one. 

Diametral  vs.  Circular  Pitch.  Replying  to  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  the  pitch  of  gearing  should  be 
diametral  or  circular,  one  large  Eastern  machine- 
tool  builder  says :  ' l  We  see  no  reason  why  a  pro- 
posed standard  should  exclude  either  diametral  or 


316  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

circular  methods.  The  diametral  pitches,  16,  12,  io> 
8,  6,  5,  and  4  per  inch,  afford  all  needed  variety  by 
a  suitable  progression.  They  are  exceedingly  con- 
venient as  regards  shop  measurement,  and  (what  is 
more  to  the  purpose  and  a  result  of  the  preceding) 
they  are  in  universal  use,  and  will  assuredly  be  used, 
whether  recognized  by  any  standard  authority  or  not. 

( 4  The  diametral  pitches  intermediate  to  the  above 
are  not  needed  for  variety,  or,  at  least  very  rarely, 
and  introduce  to  the  workman  awkward  and  unac- 
customed fractions,  while  larger  pitches  in  suitable 
progression  by  the  diametral  plan  are  increasingly 
open  to  the  same  objection,  and  the  convenience  of 
the  system  disappears. 

4  *  Were  we  now  to  adopt  for  ourselves  a  system  of 
pitches  they  would  almost  certainly  be  diametral  to 
four  per  inch,  using  the  numbers  above,  and  circular 
for  larger  pitches,  by  eighths  from  J  inches  to  ij 
inches  or  2 -inch  pitch  (inclusive) ,  and  by  quarters 
above  2  in. -  hes." 

The  Nordyke  &  Mormon  Co.  thinks  that  for  cast 
gearing,  such  as  for  mill- work,  etc.,  the  circular  pitch 
is  best,  and  suggests  that  the  progression  should 
be  by  ^-inch  in  advance  from  }  to  ij-inch,  then  by 
J-inch  advance  to  2j-inch  pitch,  then  by  J-inch 
advance. 

Cut  vs.  Cast  Gears.  In  reference  to  the  compara- 
tive advantages  of  cut  versus  cast  gears,  I  may  say 
in  favor  of  the  former  that  the  teeth  being  much  more 
correct  and  regular  in  outline  and  more  uniform  in 
size,  with  less  back-lash  or  play,  they  run  much  more 
steadily  and  smoothly,  and  with  less  friction  than 
uncut  gears  do.  There  being  no  draft,  the  wheel 
has  no  '  *  right  and  left ' '  as  with  pattern-molded 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  317 

wheels.  But  there  is  this  to  be  said  for  the  uncut, 
that  the  skin  of  the  casting  remains  intact,  and  the 
material  is  more  resistant  to  wear  than  if  the  softer 
material  were  exposed. 

In  the  matter  of  large  cast  gears,  those  which  are 
machine-molded  should  have  the  preference  over 
those  cast  from  a  whole  pattern,  because  the  teeth 
can  be  made  more  carefully,  and  molded  more  per- 
fectly ;  the  draft  being  less  and  there  being  no  twist- 
ing of  the  pattern.  Of  course,  after  the  index 
machine  and  appliances  are  provided,  the  machine- 
molded  gear  is  much  the  cheaper  to  produce.  The 
draft  is  but  slight,  which  is  an  advantage, 

Overloaded  Gears.  Gears  are  more  apt  to  be  over- 
loaded than  belts  are,  because  they  will  not  slip  as 
belts  will,  and  will  either  break  or  cut  out. 

Strength  of  Gear-Teeth.  The  thickness  of  teeth  at 
the  pitch-circle  may  be  considered  as  an  average  of 
the  thickness  at  the  root.  Where  wheels  have 
straight  flanks  (generally  owing  to  the  fewness  of 
teeth)  the  thickness  at  the  root  is  less  than  at  the 
pitch-circle.  In  most  other  cases  it  is  greater.  In 
calculating  the  thickness  and  breadth  of  teeth,  there 
must  be  considered  not  only  the  question  of  the 
strength  of  the  teeth,  but  their  resistance  to  wear  by 
abrasion  resulting  from  sliding  friction. 

The  faster  wheels  run,  and  the  more  suddenly  they 
are  started,  stopped  or  reversed,  the  higher  should  be 
the  factor  of  safety. 

Dimensions  of  Gear-Teeth  for  a  Given  Power.  It 
will  very  probably  be  impossible  to  establish  any  gen- 
eral rule  for  the  proportions  of  gears  to  transmit  a 
given  horse-power,  because  the  horse-power  transmit- 
ted seldom  gives  us  any  knowledge  of  the  greatest 


3 18  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

strain  to  which  the  gearing  is  liable.  Belts  relieve 
themselves  by  slipping  and  stretching ;  shafts  by 
twisting  and  springing  ;  gears  by  breaking.  Bements 
consider  it  safe  to  apply  at  the  pitch-line  of  good  cast- 
iron  gearing  a  strain  in  pounds  equal  to  i  ,000  p2  to 
i,2OOp2.  This  supposes  ordinarily  favorable  circum- 
stances, and  a  face  width  of  about  3  pitches. 

There  are  cases  where  a  greater  strain  is  safe,  and 
others  quite  the  reverse.  Perhaps  the  best  way  on  this 
subject  is  to  treat  every  important  case  on  its  own 
merits. 

Proportions  of  Gear=Teeth.  These  vary  according 
to  the  purpose  for  which  the  gears  are  intended,  and 
the  materials  of  which  they  are  made,  and  are  to  a 
certain  extent  independent  of  the  tooth  outline.  The 
pitch  being  i,  the  depth  to  pitch-line  may  be  3-10, 
working  depth  6-10,  whole  depth  7-10,  thickness  5-11, 
breadth  of  space  6-n.  (Willis.)  One  English  pro- 
portion is  :  pitch  100,  depth  75,  working  depth  70, 
clearance  5,  thickness  45,  space  55,  play  10,  inside 
pitch-line  40,  outside  35. 

The  manufacture  of  gear-cutters  (not  gear-cutting 
machines)  by  one  or  two  large  firms  has  done  and  is 
doing  much  to  unify  the  practice  as  to  outlines,  and 
dimensions  of  cut  gears.  The  cutters  of  these  firms 
are  exactly  alike  in  these  particulars,  except  a  differ- 
ence in  bottom  clearance,  so  trifling  as  to  be  of  no 
consequence,  and  the  same  proportions  would  be  best 
adhered  to  for  teeth  of  circular  as  for  diametral  pitch . 
For  the  former  the  working  depth  would  be  0.64  the 
pitch  (correctly  0.63662),  and  the  bottom  clearance 
0.5  p.  In  the  matter  of  width  of  face  of  cut  gearing, 
probably  no  standard  would  be  possible  or  necessary, 
as  it  is  so  often  dependent  upon  circumstances.  Three 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  319 

times  the  pitch  is,  however,  by  many  considered  a  very 
satisfactory  width. 

Small  teeth  require  proportionately  more  clearance 
at  the  root  than  large  ones. 

In  order  to  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  cutting  of  a 
shoulder  in  the  flanks  of  epicycloid  teeth,  D.  K.  Clark 
recommends,  if  the  flanks  have  excessive  taper,  thin- 
ning the  teeth  for  a  distance  of  half  the  hight  of  the 
flank,  measured  from  the  root ;  stating  that  the  work- 
ing durability  of  the  tooth  is  much  increased,  and 
steadiness  of  action  promoted  even  when  the  tooth  has 
become  much  worn. 

Gear=Tooth  Outlines  for  General  Adoption.  If  we 
are  going  to  have  a  gear-tooth  outline  which  shall  be 
understood  to  be  the  standard  and  be  by  law  so  recom- 
mended and  adopted,  it  would  be  well  to  consult  all 
the  great  builders  and  designers  of  machinery.  To  a 
certain  extent  I  have  done  this  in  days  gone  by. 

Special  Gears.  While  there  should  be  standards  of 
gearing  to  which  it  will  be  understood  that  any  maker 
will  cast  or  cut  gears  when  ordered  without  any  spe- 
cific directions,  yet  it  is  well  to  remember  that  for 
special  cases  it  is  best  to  use  special  gears,  just  as  for 


FIGS.  207  AND  208.  (FRED.  J.  MILLER.) 

special  purposes  particular  non-standard  screw-threads 
may  be  desirable.  Where  a  machine  is  needed  for  a 
purpose  calling  for  but  little  power,  but  in  which  fric- 
tion should  be  eliminated  to  as  great  an  extent  as  pos- 
sible, it  will  be  well  to  follow  the  suggestion  of  Mr. 


320  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Fred.  J.  Miller  and  use  an  epicycloid  tooth  the  curves 
of  which  are  generated  by  a  rolling-circle  of  greater 
diameter  than  the  pitch-radius  of  the  wheels,  thus 
getting  a  tooth-outline  about  like  that  shown  in  Fig- 
ure 207 — not  a  pretty  tooth,  and  not  a  strong  one,  but 
rolling  easily  with  its  mates.  But  where  very  strong 
teeth  are  needed,  and  especially  if  the  pinion  is  of 
comparatively  small  diameter,  the  rolling- circle  may 
have  a  diameter  smaller  than  the  pitch-radius,  produc- 
ing such  a  tooth,  for  instance,  as  is  shown  in  Figure 
208. 

To  Lay  off  Teeth  for  a  Sprocket- Wheel  of  any  diam- 
eter, where  you  have  the  chain  already,  first  find  the 
distance  between  links  of  the  chain  ;  this  will  deter- 
mine the  pitch  of  the  teeth  of  the  wheel,  and  this 
pitch  of  course  must  be  constant  for  every  wheel  with 
which  the  chain  must  work.  Note  the  number  of 
teeth  that  any  one  wheel  must  have  ;  multiply  the 
pitch  of  the  chain  by  that  number  and  divide  by 
3.1416  (unless  you  have  a  tape-measure  which  is 
graduated  into  units  of  3.1416  inches  in  length,  these 
units  being  marked  i,  2,  3,  etc.,  to  show  the  diam- 
eters in  inches  of  bodies  about  which  the  tape-meas- 
ure is  passed).  Lay  down  a  circle  of  this  diameter, 
which  diameter  will  be  the  pitch-diameter  or  working- 
diameter  of  the  wheel,  measured  at  a  distance  half  the 
thickness  of  the  links  from  the  bottoms  of  the  teeth. 
Draw  a  circle  smaller  than  the  pitch-circle,  by  the 
diameter  of  the  links  ;  then  there  will  be  between  it 
and  the  pitch-circle  a  space  equal  to  half  the  link- 
diameter.  Step  off  either  of  these  circles  into  as 
many  equal  parts  as  required  for  the  number  of  teeth. 
About  the  points  of  division  on  the  pitch-circle,  as 
centers,  draw  circles  having  a  diameter  equal  to  that 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  321 

of  the  chain ;  then  between  but  not  cutting  these 
circles  you  may  lay  out  the  teeth,  with  as  great  a 
spread  as  will  give  strength  at  the  base,  but  without 
making  them  so  pointed  as  not  to  get  a  good  grip  on 
the  links. 

This  rule  assumes  what  is  ordinarily  the  case,  that 
the  links  will  curve  slightly  to  conform  to  the  pitch- 
circle. 

Spur-Gear  Blanks.  There  are  still  many  machin- 
ists and  millwrights  who  learned,  as  I  did,  the  old- 
fashioned  ' c  circular  pitch  J '  for  gear-wheels ;  and 
many  of  these  may  be,  as  I  was  for  some  time,  both- 
ered about  coming  over  to  the  ' '  diametral  pitch ' ' 
system  now  so  largely  adopted.  For  some  of  these, 
and  for  those  who  have  come  here  from  other  coun- 
tries and  are  still  thinking  in  the  old  systems,  I  may 
say  that  the  diametral  pitch  of  any  gear  is  the 
number  of  teeth  that  it  has  to  each  inch  of  diameter 
on  the  pitch-circle,  and  that  the  blanks  are  always  of 
the  same  denomination  as  the  pitch  ;  thus  an  * l  eight- 
pitch  ' '  gear  must  be  a  certain  number  of  even  eighths 
of  an  inch  in  diameter ;  a  "  six-pitch  ' '  gear  always 

certain  even  number  of  sixths  of  an  inch,  and  so  on. 

To  find  the  outside  diameter  of  the  blanks  for  spur 
gears,  add  two  parts  of  the  pitch  to  the  diameter  of 
the  pitch-circle.  Thus  for  an  eight-pitch  spur  gear 
of  thirty  teeth,  the  outside  diameter  of  the  blank  is 
32  eighths  or  four  inches;  for  a  ten-pitch  gear  of 
forty  teeth  the  outside  diameter  of  the  blank  is  42- 
tenths=4.2  inches. 

To  get  the  distance  between  the  centers  of  two 
gears,  add  together  the  number  of  teeth  and  divide 
the  sum  by  double  the  diametral  pitch.  Thus  if  there 
is  a  48-tooth  and  a  36-tooth  spur  gear  working 


322 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


together,  both  being  five-pitch,  48  plus  36  equals  84 ; 
this  divided  by  twice  5  equals  8.4  inches,  the  distance 
between  centers. 

Planing  Bevel=Gear  Teeth.  Milling  bevel-gear  teeth 
is  an  absurdity  if  one  expects  to  get  teeth  that  will 
mesh  together  without  heating,  rattling  or  backlash. 
Any  cutter  that  has  the  right  profile  for  the  back  end 
of  the  teeth — that  is,  the  large  part  of  the  wheel — 
would  not  of  course  leave  tooth  enough  at  the  other 
end.  On  the  other  hand,  a  cutter  that  is  right  for  the 
small  end  would  be  of  no  use  for  the  large,  as  it  would 
only  make  an  approximation  to  the  proper  outline, 
to  do  as  some  do,  run  through  twice,  once  for  each 
side.  For  such  wheels,  in  the  first  place,  the  ordinary 


FIG.  209. — PLANING  GEAR-TEETH.  (BILGRAM.) 

involute  and  epicycloidal  tooth  outlines  are  almost 
impossible  to  get  up  even  at  the  greatest  expense ; 
and  in  the  second  place  with  ordinary  machines  and 
ordinary  workmen  they  are  not  feasible.  The  system 
that  works  best  for  bevel- wheels  (including  both  miter- 
wheels  proper,  or  those  with  forty-five-degree  angle, 
and  other  bevel- wheels,  having  different  face-angle) 
is  one  in  which,  instead  of  the  pinion  of  twelve  to 
fifteen  teeth,  the-  rack  is  the  u  master n  with  which 
all  others  of  the  system  will  roll.  With  the  ordinary 
standard  gears,  such  as  those  of  Pratt  &  Whitney  and 
Brown  &  Sharpe,  all  wheels  of  a  system  will  gear 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  323. 

properly  with,  the  master-pinion  of  fifteen  teeth  and 
consequently  will  mesh  properly  with  each  other  ; 
and  in  the  Willis  system  the  master- wheel  is  a  pinion 
of  twelve  teeth,  which  is  the  pinion  of  the  smallest 
number  of  teeth  that  can  be  cut  and  leave  any  strength 
in  the  tooth-flanks. 

Going  to  the  opposite  extreme  we  find  that  we  can 
employ  as  a  master-wheel  one  having  an  infinite 
number  of  teeth — that  wheel  being,  to  make  an  Irish 
bull,  a  rack  ;  and  all  wheels  of  a  system  that  will 
gear  properly  with  the  rack  will  gear  properly  with 
each  other. 

Now  the  rack  itself,  or  one  of  its  teeth,  may  be 
used  as  a  cutter  for  all  spur-wheels  or  gear-wheels  of 
the  system  ;  and  Figure  209  shows  how  the  teeth  of 
an  involute  rack  would  cut  its  way  through  a  rolling 
blank,  forming  one  of  the  spaces  of  the  teeth.  (The 
dotted  line  represents  the  pitch-circle.) 

Now  if  you  have  a  tool  representing  one  tooth  of  a 
rack,  and  having  a  reciprocating  motion  while  the 
wheel-blank  is  given  a  rolling  motion,  we  may  make 
bevel-gears  which  will  mesh  properly  together.  As 
the  involute  tooth  is  the  only  one  which  will  mesh 
properly  at  varying  pitch-diameters,  the  involute  rack 
tooth,  which  has  straight  sides,  is  the  only  one  avail- 
able for  this  purpose.  In  using  it  the  tool  must  not 
run  parallel  with  the  pitch-cone,  but  with  the  bottom 
of  the  space.  In  the  Bilgram  shops,  Philadelphia, 
all  bevel- wheels  are  cut  on  this  system,  on  a  special 
machine  consisting  of  a  ( '  shaper  n  with  an  attach- 
ment for  holding  the  blank  and  giving  it  not  only 
intermittent  rotation  to  suit  the  desired  number  of 
teeth,  but  a  rolling  motion  like  that  of  a  conical 
pendulum  ;  and  I  have  seen  bevel-gears,  made  on 


324  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

such  a  machine,  consisting  of  a  set  of  12,  18,  and  24 
teeth  respectively,  all  meshing  with  one  of  36  teeih. 
Of  course  the  axis  of  the  i2-tooth  bevel  pinion  was 
much  nearer  to  the  face  of  the  36-tooth  wheel  than 
that  of  the  i8-tooth  pinion,  while  that  of  the  24-tooth 
pinion  was  farther  away.  This  would  be  a  case 
practically  impossible  to  make  on  any  other  system  ; 
but  here  it  is  done ;  the  tool  automatically  easing 
away  just  enough  of  the  backs  or  back  ends  of  the 
teeth  on  the  12 -tooth  pinion,  and  just  enough  on  the 
small  ends  of  the  24,  to  make  perfect  rolling  contact. 
By  the  same  system,  inclined- teeth  wheels  (not  skew 
wheels,  where  the  axes  do  not  come  together  if  pro- 
longed) may  be  made,  giving  continuous  contact  as 
with  the  ' '  herring-bone  gears  ' '  used  in  rubber-mills 
(and  not  enough  used  in  other  work)  to  insure  that 
there  is  always  one  tooth  in  full  mesh. 

False  Teeth  for  Spur-Gears.  It  often  happens  that 
by  reason  of  its  being  too  weak,  or  having  the  load 
brought  on  it  diagonally  instead  of  squarely,  or  of 
something  getting  in  the  way,  a  tooth  will  break  out 
of  a  large  spur-gear ;  and  the  smaller  the  diameter  of 
the  wheel  with  reference  to  the  pitch,  the  more  trouble 
this  will  make  in  driving,  especially  if  it  is  the 
driven  gear.  But  it  is  not  always  necessary  to  put  in 
a  new  section  of  rim,  even  where  provision  has  been 
made  for  this.  You  may  put  in  a  false  tooth  that 
will  be  even  better  than  the  original,  by  making  a 
tin  template  of  one  of  the  others  (allowing  the  proper 
amount  for  what  has  been  worn  off ,  if  you  wish  and  feel 
competent) ,  and  on  its  bottom  marking  off  a  dove- 
tail. Make  a  wrought- iron  tooth  to  this  template  ; 
slot  out  the  rim  with  a  portable  key-seating  machine, 
or  if  you  have  not  this,  chip  it  out;  then  fasten  the 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  325 

tooth  in  place  by  two  or  more  bolts  or  studs  from  the 
back,  or  by  studs  from  the  end  of  the  tooth. 

Instead  of  a  wrought- Iron  tooth,  one  of  gun-metal 
may  be  used — and  by  ' '  gun-metal ' '  I  mean  either 
u  8  to  i  n  copper  and  tin,  or  what  is  known  in  South 
Boston  and  in  Pittsburgh  as  gun-metal — namely,  an 
excellent  quality  of  cast  iron  such  as  was  used  for 
making  "  Parrott  "  and  "  Columbia  n  guns. 

Grinding  Cast  Gears  Together.  There  is  a  much- 
maligned  animal  called  the  jackass.  Whenever  any 
one  does  anything  that  is  not  just  right,  or  which 
some  one  else  thinks  is  not  just  right,  he  gets  called 
a  jackass  ;  whereas  in  many  cases  it  is  a  libel  on  the 
four-footed  animal.  It  would  be  so  in  the  case  of  the 
so-called  machinist  who  grinds  his  cast  gears  together 
to  make  them  run  smoothly.  In  order  to  do  the 
thing  about  as  badly  as  possible,  he  uses  emery  or 
corundum  to  help  the  grinding  along.  The  result  is 
that  if  the  teeth  ever  had  any  regular  shape,  or  any 
form  at  all,  other  than  might  be  made  by  getting  the 
print  of  the  ball  of  the  thumb — that  shape  is  all  gone. 
The  action  of  the  gears  may  be  smooth  enough  as 
regards  absence  of  noise,  and  as  regards  freedom  from 
hard  running  ;  but  if  you  will  set  together  a  train  of 
several  such  gears  and  see  that  the  first  of  them  is 
turned  slowly,  one  tooth  at  a  time,  with  regular  veloc- 
ity, you  will  find  that  the  last  one  goes  by  fits  and 
starts,  according  to  just  what  parts  of  the  teeth  are  in 
gear  ;  and  the  smaller  the  pinions  in  comparison  with 
the  spurs,  the  greater  the  irregularity  of  motion. 
In  addition  to  this,  you  cannot  grind  cast-iron  sur- 
faces together  with  emery  or  corundum  without  some 
of  the  abrasive  getting  bedded  into  the  metal,  there 
to  remain  acting  as  in  a  lap,  cutting  and  scoring  its 


326  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

way  into  the  opposing  surface  and  thus  producing  a 
heating  worse,  if  possible,  than  the  mere  roughnesses 
that  were  considered  objectionable. 

Not  that  rough  gear-teeth  are  to  be  praised  or  even 
countenanced  ;  but  the  best  way  to  do  is  to  get  them 
smooth,  regular,  and  of  proper  outline  at  first,  by  mak- 
ing proper  drawings  and  having  proper  patterns  ;  by 
taking  care  in  rapping  the  patterns  when  making  the 
mold,  and  by  being  careful  to  use  the  proper  metal 
and  to  pour  it  rightly.  Then  the  tooth-curves  will 
be  such  as  to  ensure  regular  action,  and  the  surfaces 
will  be  such  as  to  run  smoothly;  while  the  skin  of  the 
castings,  which  is  the  best  part  of  them,  will  not  be 
taken  off  before  the  wheels  are  put  to  work. 

A  better  way  than  to  make  patterns  of  large  wheels 
is  to  make  a  good  template  and  make  the  mold  by  a 
gear-molding  machine,  with  a  good  index-plate  and 
stiff  radius-bar. 

Wooden  ««  Core- Wheels  "  sometimes  give  trouble 
by  the  keys  becoming  loose  and  letting  the  cogs  rise 
in  the  mortise,  breaking  the  gear.  Core- wheels 
cogged  with  dry  material  have  been  known  to  burst 
by  the  swelling  of  the  cogs  in  their  mortises. 

Raw=Hide  Gears.  Many  years  ago  it  was  well 
known  among  millwrights  that  raw-hide  was  one  of 
the  most  desirable  things  in  existence,  and  that  gears 
made  of  it  would  outlast  most  metal  and  all  wooden 
ones.  Since  the  introduction  of  electric  street-cars, 
there  has  been  a  demand  for  something  that  would 
be  more  durable  than  bronze,  cast  or  wrought  iron, 
or  even  than  steel,  and  that  would  not  howl  as  metal 
ones  do  under  the  high  speeds  requisite  for  street-car 
motors.  Here  raw-hide  gears  come  in  with  special 
advantage;  not  only  wearing  longer  themselves  than 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  327 

metal  ones,  but  prolonging  the  life  of  the  large  metal 
gears  with  which  they  mesh.  They  require  no  lubri- 
cation— in  fact  are  better  without  it  than  with  it; 
and  they  greatly  reduce  vibration.  On  electric- motor 
shafts  this  is  of  special  advantage,  as  it  makes  the 
armature- wires  last  longer.  Steer  hides  are  the  best 
for  this  purpose,  and  the  butts  are  the  best  parts. 

Testing  Gear-Teeth.  In  all  machine-shops  that 
are  specially  rigged  for  cutting  gear-teeth  on  modern 
principles,  there  is  provision  for  measuring  the  teeth 
with  compound  vernier  calipers  especially  constructed 
for  this  work,  and  enabling  the  measuring  of  the 
distance  from  the  top  of  the  tooth  to  the  pitch-line 
within  one- one- thousandth  of  an  inch,  at  the  same 
time  measuring  the  exact  thickness  at  the  pitch-line. 
In  the  Iceland  &  Faulconer  shops  there  is  a  spur- 
gear  tester  which  carries  two  studs  that  are  exactly 
perpendicular  to  the  bed  of  the  machine,  and  is  pro- 
vided with  a  vernier  which  enables  the  testing  of  the 
gear  at  precisely  the  correct  center-distance.  Their 
bevel-gear  tester  has  two  spindles  exactly  perpendic- 
ular to  each  other,  and  the  center-lines  of  which  are 
in  the  same  plane. 

Figuring  Gear=Teeth.  The  way  that  Lee  figured 
up  the  number  of  teeth  in  a  wheel  which  he  needed, 
to  cut  a  screw  of  one-and-one-half-inch  pitch ,  with  a 
compound-geared  lathe,  was  not  by  figuring,  because 
every  one  who  figured  on  the  job  told  him  a  different 
number;  but  he  put  on  the  gear  to  cut  one-inch 
pitch ;  took  up  all  lost  motion,  marked  the  carriage 
and  face-plate,  put  a  two-foot  rule  with  one  end  on 
the  floor  and  the  other  on  the  third  change  of  wheels, 
made  a  scribe-mark  above  the  rule,  went  to  the  face- 
plate and  moved  it  until  the  carriage  had  moved  one 


328  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

and  one-half  inches  on  the  bed,  went  back  to  the 
gearing,  made  a  second  scribe-mark  on  the  same 
wheel,  and  noted  the  number  of  teeth  in  the  wheel 
between  the  scribe-marks.  Then  he  told  the  fore- 
man that  he  must  have  a  wheel  made,  with  twenty- 
five  teeth  instead  of  twenty-eight.  It  was  ordered 
and  made,  and  when  put  in  place  made  the  worm 
with  one  and  one-half  inches  pitch. 

All  of  which  shows  that  some  men  have  ideas  in 
their  heads. 

Rules  for  Laying  Out  Gearing.  To  determine  the  stress 
per-tooth  of  a  cast-iron  spur-wheel  transmitting  a  given 
horse-power.  Multiply  the  number  of  horse-power  by 
129,050,  and  divide  the  product  by  the  diameter  in 
inches,  times  the  number  of  turns  per  minute. 

To  determine  the  pitch  and  breadth  of  face  of  a  cast-iron 
spur-wheel  transmitting  a  given  horse-power.  Divide  the 
stress  on  a  tooth,  in  pounds,  by  the  number  of  pounds 
strain  per  inch  breadth  of  face. 

Shown  in  the  following  table  : 

Pitch,  inches %  %  %  ft  %  % 

Pounds  stress  per  inch  breadth  of  face .     20  30  40  50  60  70 

Pitch i  i#          i%          i%         2  2% 

Pounds. 80%       100%       120%       141          161          181 

Pitch 2  2%  3  3  3  3  4 

Pounds 201        221%      241%     2611-16    281%      302         322 

This  gives  the  breadth  of  face  in  inches .  The  figures 
of  permissible  strain  are  low,  but  are  based  on  average 
shocks,  and  are  suitable  for  oblique  strains. 

To  get  the  exact  radius  of  a  pitch-circle,  in  inches.  Find 
the  exact  radius,  nearest  to  the  approximate  radius, 
that  with  the  given  pitch  will  evenly  divide  the  pitch- 
circle.  The  number  of  teeth  will  be  equal  to  6.2832 
times  the  assumed  radius,  in  inches,  divided  by  the 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  329 

circular  pitch,  in  inches.  Taking  the  nearest  whole 
number  to  this  quotient,  the  exact  radius,  in  inches, 
will  be  equal  to  the  product  of  this  by  the  pitch,  divi- 
ded by  6.3832. 

Troublesome  Bearings.  Sometimes  there  conies 
back  to  the  shop  a  bearing  that  will  heat,  no  matter 
how  much  oil  it  gets.  It  is  strange,  but  true,  that  in 
such  cases  relief  will  very  often  be  got  by  simply  chang- 
ing the  bearing- metal.  If  it  is  a  brass  bearing  that 
heats,  a  babbitt  bearing  will  often  work  all  right,  and 
this  with  no  discredit  to  the  brass,  because  it  is  very 
often  just  the  other  way  about ;  the  brass  may  run  cool 
where  the  babbitt  will  melt  out.  No  one  as  yet  can 
tell  just  why  this  is  in  any  one  instance  ;  there  are 
about  seventeen  different  things  that  go  to  make  up 
the  reason,  or  the  set  of  reasons,  why  the  thing  will  not 
run  cool.  Just  put  it  down  to  "the  nature  of  the 
beast, ' '  and  try  something  else.  I  have  known  apple- 
wood  to  run  cool  where  babbitt  and  brass  both  failed  ; 
and  vice  versa. 

Cool-Running  Bearing.  After  all,  about  the  best 
bearing  for  a  circular-saw  arbor  or  anything  like  that, 
which  gets  bad  usage  and  plenty  of  it,  is  the  rind  of 
salt  pork.  That  will  help  you  out  of  the  difficulty, 
in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  ;  but  when  you  have  time  and 
opportunity,  you  should  put  in  something  more  sub- 
stantial and  workmanlike. 

••  Self=Oiling  "  Bearings.  Do  not  place  too  much 
(that  is,  entire)  dependence  on  self-oiling  bearings. 
While  their  use  is  to  be  recommended,  it  is  to  be  re- 
membered that  there  is  no  device  of  either  human  or 
Divine  design  and  construction  that  is  not  liable  to 
give  out  at  some  time  or  other ;  and  luck  usually 
brings  the  times  of  failure  just  when  they  will  cause 


330  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

the  most  inconvenience  or  loss.  A  safety-valve  is 
supposed  to  be  a  self-acting  device  to  prevent  boiler 
explosions,  but  none  the  less  is  it  practically  im- 
perative that  it  be  tested  daily  to  see  that  it  lifts 
easily ;  and  in  the  same  way  with  a  self-oiling  bear- 
ing ;  it  should  be  given  frequent  and  careful  inspec- 
tion to  see  that  some  one  has  not  neglected  it  or 
tampered  with  it,  or  that  it  has  not  for  some  reason 
or  other  (or  no  reason  at  all)  stopped  working  or 
commenced  to  work  imperfectly.  This  is  particularly 
so  on  crosshead  bearings ;  they  are  especially  liable 
to  get  out  of  kilter,  and  when  they  do  they  take  less 
time  to  seize  and  give  less  warning  than  almost  any 
other  kind. 

A  very  simple  type  of  ' '  self-oiling  ' '  bearings 
may  be  made  by  providing  in  the  cup  a  recess 
formed  by  a  circumferential  groove,  in  which  there 
is  placed  an  endless  rope  or  chain  that  dips  in  the  oil 
receptacle  below  and  is  turned  by  the  motion  of  the 
shaft.  The  faster  the  shaft  turns,  the  faster  the  oil 
is  brought  up. 

Cast=Iron  Bearings.  When  you  get  right  down  to 
it  there  are  many  things  to  be  said  in  favor  of  cast 
iron  working  on  cast  iron,  and  wrought  iron  on  cast 
iron.  In  how  many  shops  do  you  see  wrought-iron 
shafting  running  in  ordinary  unbabbitted  cast-iron 
bearings,  and  doing  it  day  in  and  day  out  for  years 
without  any  trouble,  as  long  as  they  are  only  decently 
lubricated  ?  Take  a  Sellers  planer.  Here  is  a  cast- 
iron  worm  working  in  a  cast-iron  rack.  The  only 
special  precaution  which  is  taken  in  this  case  is  that 
the  worm  is  not  cut  by  the  use  of  the  lead-screw,  but 
a  standard  former  is  used ;  both  the  former  and  the 
worm  being  on  the  same  mandrel,  and  the  nut  which 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHA  T.  33I 

gears  into  the  former  being  fast  to  the  carriage  which 
carries  the  tool  for  chasing.  This  makes  it  certain 
that  the  worm  will  be  as  correct  as  the  former ; 
and  if  the  former  is  properly  cut  the  worm  must 
be  right. 

Ball  Bearings.  In  olden  days  wherever  there  was 
a  rotating  piece,  it  turned  on  cylindrical  journals  or 
gudgeons  ;  usually  short  and  thick.  With  some  ad- 
vance in  the  science  and  art  of  mechanics,  cylindrical 
bearings  became  longer  and  longer,  thus  lessening  the 
pressure  per  square  inch  which  tended  to  squeeze  the 
lubricant  out  from  between  the  bearing- surfaces.  A 
further  development  was  in  the  nature  of  anti-friction 
rollers  ;  and  for  a  long  time  the  homely  and  primitive 
grindstone  was  away  ahead  of  the  best  other  grades  of 
machines  in  having  these.  The  use  of  the  cone-center 
for  certain  classes  of  horizontal  rotating-pieces,  as  in 
lathes,  was  a  great  step  ;  and  both  the  lathe  and  grind- 
stone were  examples  of  advanced,  although  no  further 
advancing,  practice. 

The  anti-friction  roller  was  an  advance  in  that  it 
substituted  rolling  for  sliding  friction  in  carrying  most 
of  the  load  ;  the  sliding  friction  being  only  that  of  the 
journals  of  the  rollers  instead  of  that  of  the  main  jour- 
nal. The  cone-centers  were  examples  of  relying  on 
hard  and  perfectly-formed  bearing-surfaces  instead  of 
on  large  areas. 

The  ball  bearing  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  combina- 
tion of  the  two  ;  employing  harder  bearing-surfaces 
than  could  be  practical  with  any  other  system,  and 
substituting  rolling  for  sliding  friction.  It  is  time  that 
ball  bearings  or  their  kin,  freely-running  roller-bear- 
ings, were  more  used  in  large  machinery.  Their  com- 
plete success  in  bicycle  construction  should  shame 


332  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

mechanics  who  are  engaged  in  what  they  term  heavy 
standard  work. 

Recent  improvements,  such  as  electric  welding,  and 
ball-rolling  machinery,  enable  turning  out  steel  balls 
of  great  hardness  and  smoothness  to  a  very  close  ap- 
proximation to  perfection  in  sphericity  ;  and  improved 
grinding  machinery  enables  bringing  them  to  a  still 
higher  degree  of  perfection  in  shape  and  surface.  Im- 
proved grinding  machinery  also  enables  the  produc- 
tion of  grooves  of  either  V  or  semi-circular  section, 
with  a  high  degree  of  correctness  in  the  circumferential 
direction,  and  of  surface  ;  so  that  there  are  now  at 
hand  materials  formerly  lacking,  and  which  invite 
the  designer  and  builder  to  use  them  with  credit  to 
himself  and  satisfaction  and  profit  to  the  purchaser  of 
the  machines  using  improved  bearings. 

BalI=and=Socket  Bearings.  The  less  you  have  to  do 
with  a  ball-and-socket  bearing  the  better  you  will  like 
it.  When  both  the  ball  and  the  socket  wear,  they 
wear  to  different  radii ;  and  then  there  is  no  adjust- 
ment which  you  can  make,  give  or  maintain,  which 
will  produce  a  full  bearing  between  the  two  surfaces. 
Theoretically,  the  contact  will  be  but  a  single  point. 
Practically,  it  may  be  several  pinching-places.  In 
either  case  it  will  be  no  good. 

Turbine  Steps.  Turbine  steps  often  make  a  good 
deal  of  trouble  by  giving  way  just  when  least  expected 
and  most  troublesome.  Outside  of  the  question  of 
stopping  the  mill  and  of  cost  of  replacing  the  steps 
themselves,  often  there  is  damage  done  by  stripping 
bevel- wheel  teeth,  especially  where  they  are  of  wood 
in  mortised  iron  rims. 

Of  course,  if  these  steps  were  all  right,  and  every- 
thing else  was  all  right,  they  would  not  burn  out  or 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  333 

otherwise  give  way  ;  but  the  main  thing  is  not 
merely  to  know  this — which  is  practically  self- 
evident — but  to  note  just  what  the  causes  are  and 
how  to  prevent  such  happenings. 

The  principal  causes  of  steps  burning  out  are  im- 
proper material  and  design  of  the  steps  themselves, 
foundation  and  setting  of  the  wheels,  penstocks  and 
draft  tubes  ;  defective  lubrication  in  the  case  of  those 


FIG.  210. — ANTI-FRICTION  TURBINE  STEP. 

that  are  not  exposed  to  the  water,  and  lack  of  care  in 
keeping  things  generally  lined  up. 

As  to  material :  lignum  vitse  is  that  usually  chosen ; 
but  all  is  not  equally  good,  and  some  pieces  are 
harder  on  one  side  than  on  the  other.  If  one  side  is 
more  durable  than  another  it  must  be  expected  that 
the  softer  side  will  give  way  first ;  then  there  will  no 
longer  be  a  good  wearing-surface  and  the  steps  will 


334  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

give  way.  Boiling  the  wood  in  oil  improves  it  in 
every  way. 

Very  often  the  shape  of  the  step  is  such  that  the 
outer  part  of  it  gets  more  wear  than  the  inner ;  both 
the  toe  and  the  step  going  faster  towards  the  circum- 
ference than  at  the  center.  There  is  a  form  of  bear- 
ing known  as  Schiele's  anti-friction  bearing,  which  is 
used  by  some  builders  of  machine-tools  and  in  which 
the  pressure  per  square  inch  on  the  circumference, 
where  the  speed  is  higher  than  at  the  center,  is  less 
than  at  the  center.  This  principle  might  be  em- 
ployed with  advantage  for  turbine  steps.  Some  years 
ago  I  proposed  such  a  step-bearing  and  illustrated  it 
in  the  American  Miller,  I  think  ;  but  the  one  that  I 
proposed  was  duplex — that  is,  there  was  one  such 
bearing  rotating  in  another  one  of  the  same  character, 
so  that  if  either  of  them  should  cease  the  other  would 
take  up  the  rotation.  This  would  also  lessen  the 
comparative  rotation-speed.  See  Figure  210. 

In  many  cases  a  large  proportion  of  the  weight  of 
the  wheel  could  be  taken  by  a  collar  on  the  shaft, 
above  the  wheel,  and  running  on  ball  bearings ; 
reserving  the  step  as  a  means  only  of  insuring  perfect 
centrality  and  verticality  of  the  shaft. 

But  in  the  wheel-pit  itself  and  the  foundation  and 
setting  there  is  more  affecting  the  wear  of  the  step 
than  almost  anywhere  else.  Of  course,  if  the  step  is 
under  water  all  the  time  it  will  not  burn  out  so  fast  as 
if  there  is  an  air-pocket  formed,  as  is  sometimes  the 
case  where  there  is  a  draft- tube;  but  under  water  or 
not,  if  the  foundation  goes  down  on  one  side,  the  step 
will  get  unequal  wear  and  will  go.  The  use  of  a 
plumb  and  level  about  the  wheel  will  show  whether 
or  not  the  latter  is  out  of  plumb  ;  but  the  wheel  may 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  335 

be  plumb  enough  and  the  foundation  under  the  pen- 
stock may  get  down  on  one  side  locally,  bringing  the 
step  and  the  concave  together  on  one  side  more  than 
on  another,  and  soon  cutting  out  the  bearing. 

Where  the  structure  is  on  a  gravel  bottom  (and 
still  more  the  case  where  it  is  on  sand)  there  is 
danger  lest  it  be  washed  away  ;  and  planking  should 
be  put  under  the  whole  business,  of  large  enough 
area  to  prevent  the  water  getting  under  and  having 
any  washing  tendency.  Of  course,  quicksand  is  worse 
than  sharp  sand  in  this  connection,  for  that  not  only 
washes  away  easily,  but  runs  with  the  slightest  prov- 
ocation, on  the  addition  or  removal  of  weight  from 
its  neighborhood. 

An  excellent  foundation  may  be  made  of  piles  driven 
to  the  rock  or  hard-pan,  filled  in  between  with  broken 
stone,  the  spaces  between  these  poured  with  coarse 
grout,  and  the  tops  of  the  piles  (which  should,  of 
course,  be  sawed  off  level  if  very  uneven)  well  planked 
over;  or  if  the  tops  of  the  piles  are  not  very  uneven, 
coarse  grout  may  be  poured  in  to  fill  up  to  the  level 
of  the  highest  top,  and  then  the  planks  may  be  laid 
down.  When  the  grout  is  well  set  the  penstock  may 
be  put  up ;  and  it  is  just  as  well  that  attention  be  paid 
to  have  full,  even,  plentiful  discharge  for  the  water, 
below  the  penstock  and  above  the  platform,  so  that 
there  shall  be  no  erosive  tendency.  The  wider  the 
tail-race  the  less  the  liability  (other  things  being  equal) 
to  cut  away  under  the  platform  and  lower  the  step. 
The  greater  the  velocity  of  the  water  as  it  leaves  the 
wheel,  the  greater  the  necessity  of  having  full  area  of 
discharge  away  from  the  structure ;  for  although  the 
water  at  the  higher  velocity  will  flow  away  more  read- 
ily and  with  a  smaller  area  of  discharge,  it  is  this  rapid 


336  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

flow  that  it  is  desirable  to  counteract ;  and  trie  flow 
should  not  be  faster  than  one  hundred  feet  a  minute — 
requiring  about  a  square  foot  of  sectional  area  for 
eighty  cubic  feet  of  water  or  so,  per  minute. 

Where  steps  are  not  submerged,  graphite  will  be 
found  to  be  a  good  lubricant ;  it  should  be  introduced 
before  the  wheel  is  put  in,  and  then  the  greater  the 
pressure  on  it,  the  smoother  it  gets. 

Until  after  the  first  spring  following  the  setting  of 
the  wheel,  the  structure,  wheel,  shaft,  etc.,  should  be 
carefully  tested  with  plumb  and  level  from  time  to 
time,  to  be  sure  that  it  is  not  settling.  If  then  it  be 
found  that  there  is  no  settling,  it  may  be  assumed  that 
things  will  run  along  without  much  trouble  from  this 
cause  ;  but  none  the  less  there  will  be  demand  for  a 
proper  step. 

To  Prevent  a  Foot-Step  From  Welding,  let  it  run 
in  an  oil-box  and  drill  a  hole  diagonally  from  the  cir- 
cumference to  the  center  of  the  spindle,  to  let  oil  run 
out  as  explained  by  the  so-called  centrifugal  force  ; 
then  have  radial  channels  in  the  bearing- plate  to  let 
oil  run  in  from  the  receptacle  surrounding  both. 
This  will  keep  a  current  of  oil  going  from  the  bottom 
of  the  reservoir  to  the  center  of  the  contacting  plane, 
and  from  there  still  upwards  (but  outwards  instead  of 
inwards),  from  the  contacting  plane  to  the  circumfer- 
ence of  the  spindle. 

Where  much  trouble  is  given  with  turbine  foot- 
steps welding,  it  may  usually  be  remedied  by  weld- 
ing on  the  lower  end  of  the  shaft  a  disk  having  its 
central  portion  recessed,  and  letting  this  bear  on  a 
large  plate.  The  central  recess  serves  as  an  oil- 
space.  Excess  of  size  of  the  plate  makes  too  rapid 
frictional  speed.  There  should  be  curved  grooves 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  337 

like  millstone  furrows,  and  the  oil  should  be  fed  into 
the  plate  from  below. 

Oil-Saving.  There  is  too  much  oil  used  ;  and  aside 
from  that  which  is  used  there  is  far  too  much  wasted. 
By  this  distinction  I  mean  that  there  is  a  certain 
amount  that  is  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to  keep 
the  bearing-surfaces  cool  and  free  from  cutting.  This 
quantity  varies  with  the  material,  dimensions,  design 
and  condition  of  the  bearing-surfaces,  and  consisting 
properly  of  oil  that  is  used,  and  which  cannot  be 
cut  down  by  any  degree  of  knowledge,  skill  or  ex- 
perience on  the  part  of  the  engine-runner.  Then 
over  and  above  this  there  is  a  certain  amount  that  is 
wasted  by  reason  of  the  fault  of  the  engine-runner, 
by  irregular  or  excessive  lubrication,  or  by  the  habit 
of  slushing  up  at  one  time  and  letting  run  almost  dry 
at  another.  The  proof  of  this  is  that  when  premiums 
are  offered  for  oil-saving  on  railways  the  amount  is 
brought  down  and  kept  down,  while  trains  make  the 
same  mileage  and  time,  the  bearing-surfaces  are 
kept  in  just  as  good  condition  and  the  fuel  required 
is  no  greater,  in  some  cases  is  even  less.  Such  a  con- 
dition of  affairs  having  been  brought  about  by  full 
knowledge  and  care  on  the  part  of  some  one  engine- 
runner  or  several,  the  threat  of  discharge  in  case  the 
oil-consumption  is  not  brought  down  to  a  certain 
maximum  by  those  who  have  no  incentive  to  saving 
or  who  don't  appreciate  the  incentive  enough  to  work 
for  it  results  in  the  general  consumption  being 
lowered  and  kept  low. 

A  good  deal  of  the  oil  that  is  wasted  is  just  thrown 
away  by  being  squirted  about  and  put  anywhere 
except  where  it  is  needed ;  also  allowed  to  leak 
from  supply-cans. 


33»  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

Once  the  average  amount  required  for  certain  en- 
gines, grades  of  service,  and  runs  having  been  deter- 
mined, by  experiment,  it  may  be  kept  there  by  al- 
lowing each  class  of  engine  a  certain  maximum 
supply  for  a  given  run  and  cutting  the  size  of  the 
supply-cans  down  to  that,  with  a  slight  margin  for 
emergencies,  while  making  the  daily  supply  justjthe 
average  consumption  without  any  such  emergency 
allowance.  If  the  engine-runner  or  the  fireman  is 
allowed  to  draw  his  own  supply  for  each  day  or  run,  it 
will  usually  be  found  that  he  will  take  more  than  he 
could  get  along  with  if  it  was  measured  and  furnished 
by  some  one  in  charge  of  the  oil. 

If  hand  and  feed-cans  are  allowed  to  get  leaky  or 
broken,  and  the  ends  of  long  spouts  are  let  get 
battered  out  of  shape  or  enlarged  by  breakage  of  the 
tips,  the  oil- consumption  will  be  increased. 

It  will  be  found  that  a  small  amount  regularly  ap- 
plied will  keep  bearing-surfaces  from  getting  heated, 
while  if  they  are  let  get  hot  it  will  take  more  than  the 
amount  saved  to  get  them  cool  again,  or  to  enable 
them  to  run  without  seizing.  Then  if,  instead  of  run- 
ning cool  without  a  certain  amount  of  oil  they  merely 
run  without  seizing,  there  will  be  more  friction  ;  the 
engine  will  u  haul  hard,  "  and  the  coal-consumption 
will  be  greater — to  say  nothing  of  the  life  of  the  bear- 
ings themselves.  The  same  thing  applies  to  rate  of 
running  ;  the  man  who  jogs  along  at  a  regular  schedule 
rate  will  require  less  oil  than  the  one  who  over-runs 
and  then  lags  back. 

Changing  the  quality  of  the  oil  often  results  in 
loss,  not  by  reason  of  the  new  oil  being  any  worse 
than  the  old,  but  because  the  conditions  of  tightness 
of  fit,  etc.,  with  which  it  works  best,  are  different. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  339 

Some  oils  are  limpid,  and  will  work  their  way  in 
between  surfaces  that  are  very  closely  fitted ;  others 
may  be  better,  but  if  they  cannot  get  where  they  are 
needed,  they  will  not  give  so  good  results. 

Some  oils  will  give  better  results  than  others  at  a 
certain  speed  or  pressure,  and  above  that  or  below 
that  they  will  not  do  so  well.  In  the  same  way  some 
cylinder-oils  are  better  than  others  up  to  a  certain 
steam-pressure,  and  above  that  they  are  not  so  good 
— they  tl  go  to  pieces,"  as  it  were. 

I  have  even  found  that  some  oils  will  work  well 
with  dry  steam,  that  will  not  work  with  wet,  and 
vice  versa. 

The  engineer  who  wants  to  save  oil  to  get  maxi- 
mum results  should  keep  his  eyes  open  and  have  a 
good  note-book. 

Wrong  Lubricants.  Very  often  a  bearing  is  all 
right  in  itself,  but  the  lubricant  is  wrong ;  for  in- 
stance, good  thing  that  graphite  is,  as  a  lubricant — 
none  better,  take  it  all  in  all — it  will  not  flow  well 
through  oil-holes,  even  when  mixed  with  thin  oil ; 
and  sometimes  the  very  cooling  of  a  bearing  will  cause 
graphite  that  has  been  mixed  with  the  oil  to  clog  up  in 
the  hole,  to  an  extent  that  is  not  remedied  by  the 
heating  of  the  bearing,  owing  to  the  stoppage  of  lubri- 
cant. 

Oiling  Pins  From  One  End  Only.  A  special  pin  in 
a  fly-wheel  governor  of  the  Straight  Line  Engine  Co. 
has  a  bearing  at  each  end  that  requires  to  be  oiled 
from  one  hole,  and  that  at  one  end  of  the  pin.  The 
annexed  illustration  shows  how  that  is  successfully 
accomplished.  The  pin  is  bored  very  nearly  through 
its  entire  length  ;  at  the  far  end  of  the  bore  there  are 
four  holes  leading  to  the  bearing,  and  there  are  also 


340 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


four  similar  holes  near  the  out  end,  having  similar  out- 
let. To  insure  equal  distribution  of  the  oil  to  both 
sets  of  holes,  there  is  a  smaller  concentric  tube  lead- 
ing from  the  accessible  end  and  terminating  at  a  point 


FIG.  an. — OILING  PINS  FROM  ONE  END  ONLY. 

(PROF.  J.  E.  SWEET.) 

midway  in  the  length  of  the  pin.  The  oil  introduced 
at  one  end  flows  to  the  middle  of  the  large  bore-hole, 
and  thence  goes  in  both  directions  to  each  set  of  holes. 
Sight  Feed.  To  get  just  the  right  amount  of  feed 
from  sight- feed  oil-cups,  try  various  amounts  until 
you  get  a  trifle  more  than  is  necessary,  and  then 
mark  a  very  fine  scratch  on  the  head  of  the  feed-stem. 
That  will  indicate  the  right  amount  for  that  kind  of 
oil.  If  you  change  your  oil,  it  may  or  may  not  be 
right,  according  to  the  viscosity  of  the  oil. 

Floods  of  Oil.  Me  Adam  is  mad.  Me  Adam's  former 
engineer  wants  a  job.  The  reason  is  that  Me  Adam 
put  in  an  oil-tank  that  had  a  faucet  at  the  bottom,  and 
the  engineer  left  the  faucet  partly  open  over  night, 
so  that  in  the  morning  there  was  a  small  lake  of  cyl- 
inder-oil on  the  floor  of  the  engine-room.  Jurgensen's 
oil-tank  has  a  little  pump  so  that  when  the  engineer 
wants  any  oil  he  has  to  work  for  it.  Jurgensen  don't 
lose  oil  the  way  McAdam  has  done. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  341 

Pumping  Gritty  Water  may  be  better  done  with, 
leather-faced  valves  than  with  those  of  hard  rubber. 
This  latter  material  is  all  right  for  clear  water,  but 
not  serviceable  where  it  is  muddy  and  gritty.  A  sole- 
leather  facing  may  be  added  temporarily  to  ordinary 
hard-rubber  valves  for  this  purpose. 

Cup-Leathers.  The  name  of  the  inventor  of  these 
has  escaped  me,  if  1  ever  knew  it ;  which  deprives  me 
of  the  pleasure  and  privilege  of  abusing  his  memory. 
Any  one  who  has  had  charge  of  renewing  these  ingen- 
ious and  unsatisfactory  devices,  or  of  paying  for  their 
maintenance,  will  appreciate  this.  In  nine  cases  out 
often,  hemp  packing  put  in  a  properly-shaped  stuff- 
ing-box and  liberally  supplied  with  blacklead  (so- 
called)  before  putting  in  will  do  just  as  well  and  cost 
much  less  ;  and  in  the  tenth  case  it  would  do  as  well 
and  not  cost  any  more,  u  year  in  and  year  out." 

But  if  you  are  already  rigged  out  with  these  expens- 
ive luxuries,  and  circumstances  will  not  permit  a 
change  outright,  try  the  way  that  the  Wm.  Sellers 
Company  introduced  for  hydraulic  accumulators  : — 
making  the  leathers  closed  instead  of  open  V's ;  that 
is,  turning  in  the  adjacent  edges  and  stitching  to  them 
a  flat  leather  ring  so  as  to  enclose  an  area  of  U  shape> 
filling  the  space  with  tallow  and  blacklead  (which 
the  wise  call  graphite).  Then  the  greater  the  press- 
ure, hydraulic  or  otherwise,  the  more  grease  and 
graphite  will  be  squeezed  through  the  pores  of  the 
leather,  and  the  better  the  friction  will  be  reduced. 

Ten-Inch  Suction  Hose.  Having  occasion  to  furnish 
in  a  hurry  some  ten-inch  suction  hose  with  couplings 
(which  latter  I  made  in  a  very  novel,  cheap,  and  effect- 
ual manner  as  related  elsewhere),  I  got  a  pine  log  about 
twelve  inches  in  diameter,  turned  it  cylindrically  to  a 


342  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

diameter  of  eleven  inches,  wound  it  with  No.  4  gal- 
vanized-iron  wire,  about  an  inch  pitch,  and  sprung 
this  into  a  heavy  sewed  duck  tube  ;  delivering  it  to 
the  customer  with  the  caution  to  be  sure  that  the  ends 
of  the  wire  were  fastened  to  the  couplings.  It  seems 
that  this  injunction  was  forgotten  ;  for  the  day  after 
the  delivery  of  the  hose  and  couplings,  I  got  a  message 
that  the  pulsometer  was  all  full  o!  wire.  When  this 
was  with  considerable  trouble  extracted,  and  new  wire 
put  into  the  hose,  properly  fastened  at  the  ends,  there 
was  no  more  trouble.  Such  hose  is  so  cheaply  and 
quickly  made  that  it  seems  strange  that  no  one  else 
has  thought  of  using  it,  especially  for  emergency  jobs. 
I  could  sell  it  at  $2.00  per  foot  and  make  #1.30  on  it, 
when  regular  rubber  suction  hose  of  the  same  size  was 
sold  from  $5.00  to  $8.00,  according  to  quality. 

And  by  the  way,  outside  of  the  question  of  price, 
Purchasing  Agent  Roop  of  the  North  Pennsylvania 
Road  told  me  that  he  preferred  such  canvas  hose  (de- 
void of  wire),  because  there  was  not  so  much  loss  when 
tramps  or  others  stuck  their  knives  through  it,  as  often 
happened. 

American  Practicality  is  a  by- word  in  Europe.  1 
don't  know  that  we  deserve  any  credit  for  it ;  it  is 
probably  born  with  us  just  as  a  taste  for  music  is  with 
the  Germans.  Whenever  I  have  been  in  Europe  I 
have  taken  delight  in  showing  our  trans-Atlantic 
cousins,  where  possible,  how  much  more  practical 
ways  we  have  of  doing  things  than  are  in  vogue  over 
there.  For  instance,  I  was  attending  a  meeting  of  a 
noted  German  society  of  engineers,  of  which  I  am  a 
member ;  and  one  of  my  fellow-members,  who  had 
been  connected  with  the  building  of  the  waterworks 
in  a  foreign  city,  was  drawing  on  the  blackboard, 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  343 

preparatory  to  reading  a  paper  on  the  water-supply  of 
that  city,  a  map  of  the  surrounding  district,  with 
canals,  aqueducts,  etc.  In  doing  this  he  was  making 
the  outline  of  one  side  of  the  canals,  etc.,  with  an 
ordinary  piece  of  chalk,  and  then  going  back  and 
drawing  the  other  bank  with  the  same  piece,  as  nearly 
parallel  as  he  could  (which  was  very  nearly)  and  as 
rapidly  as  he  couH  (which  was  not  very  fast).  I 
stepped  up  and  saying  "pardon  me,n  cut  a  nick  in 
the  chalk  and  showed  him  that  it  would  do  much 
better  work  and  take  much  less  time  to  draw  both 
of  the  parallel  lines  at  once.  He  stood  for  a  moment 
astounded  at  the  simple  trick,  and  then  he  and  several 
others  who  were  standing  by  ejaculated,  "  Wie 
praktisch  /"  (How  practical  I)-— as  though  almost  any 
school-boy  in  this  country  would  not  have  done  the 
same  thing  just  in  that  way. 

Ordering  Duplicates.  If  you  want  those  pieces 
duplicated  every  now  and  then,  don't  send  drawings 
down  to  the  shops.  Send  the  things  themselves. 
The  men's  calipers  will  tell  them  what  dimensions  to 
give  ;  there  can  be  no  mistake  about  what  metal  or 
other  material  is  to  be  used,  nor  as  to  the  number  of 
each  kind  of  piece  to  be  made  ;  and  better  yet,  there 
will  be  uniformity  of  finish  for  each  part  and  place. 

An  Inspector's  Truck.  In  these  days  of  interchange- 
able parts  and  of  working  to  thousandths,  inspection 
is  a  very  important  part  of  the  machine-shop  econo- 
my ;  and  every  pains  should  be  taken  to  make  it  not 
only  thorough  in  the  first  place,  but  inexpensive  in 
the  second.  There  are  many  machines  like  dynamos, 
machine-tools,  and  the  like,  which  cannot  well  be 
brought  to  the  inspector  ;  so  if  the  mountain  will  not 
go  to  Mahomet,  Mahomet  must  go  to  the  mountain. 


344 


SHOP  KINKS  AND 


To  enable  this  to  be  done,  with  economy  of  time  and 
money,  and  without  cluttering  up  benches  and  inter- 
fering with  the  workman,  the  truck  here  shown 
should  prove  valuable  in  many  shops,  as  it  has  before  in 
those  of  the  Brown  &  Sharpe  Co. 

There  is  a  desk-like  structure  having  one  part,  about 
thirty- four  inches  high,  including  the  casters  (which 


FIGS.  212  AND  213. — INSPECTOR'S  TRUCK.    (BROWN  &  SHARPE.) 

should  be  rubber-covered) ,  and  the  other  as  high  as  is 
convenient  for  writing.  That  part  to  the  right  is  flat ; 
that  to  the  left  sloping.  The  former  may  be  made  wider 
by  a  flap  which  may  be  held  rigid  in  a  horizontal  posi- 
tion by  a  hinged  swinging  bracket.  There  are  compart- 
ments for  the  necessary  books  and  stationery,  others  for 
small  gages  and  tools;  and  below,  racks  for  long  screw- 
drivers and  other  pieces  which  may  be  more  handily 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  345 

kept  thus.  The  illustration  is  practically  self-explan- 
atory, and  the  idea  is  commended  to  dynamo-builders, 
makers  of  machine-tools,  steam-engines,  etc.,  as  well 
as  to  manufacturers  cf  sewing-machines,  typewriters, 
and  other  small  delicate  machines. 

Electric  Annunciator.  Where  one  man  has  to  at- 
tend several  tools  or  to  attend  one  tool  and  do  some- 
thing else  while  waiting  for  it  to  get  through  its  cut, 
it  is  well  to  have  an  electric  annunciator  to  give  an 
audible  signal  just  before  the  cut  is  through.  This 
may  be  done  by  having  a  brass  rod  pressed  by  a 
spring  against  the  moving  piece  or  against  the  car- 
riage, and  so  placed  that,  when  at  a  convenient  dis- 
tance from  the  end  of  the  stroke  or  cut,  it  shall  enter 
between  two  spring  clips  of  sheet  brass  which  are 
connected  to  an  electric  battery  and  bell,  so  that  on 
the  circuit  being  completed  the  bell  shall  be  started 
ringing. 

Tool-Lists.  Not  long  ago  I  made  a  profitable  visit 
to  the  world-famous  shops  of  the  Brown  &  Sharpe 
Manufacturing  Co.,  in  which  for  some  reasons,  and 
in  some  lines,  there  was  less  to  learn  there  than  in 
establishments  where  there  is  more  building  and  less 
manufacturing.  The  science  of  making  things  in  quan- 
tity, exactly  alike,  of  the  highest  attainable  degree 
of  perfection,  with  the  greatest  capacity  of  produc- 
tion, and  at  the  lowest  cost,  consistent  with  good 
work  ;  the  business  of  making  machine-tools  as 
though  they  were  sewing-machines,  and  milling- 
cutters  as  though  they  were  buttons — to  say  nothing 
of  the  side  lines  of  making  sewing-machines  by 
the  hundred  thousand — must  of  necessity  call  for 
special  devices  and  systems,  from  which  others  may 
learn. 


346  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

One  of  the  predominant  characteristics  of  this  vast 
establishment  is  the  business  management  which 
pervades  every  department,  so  that  the  visitor,  while 
he  cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  fact  that  here 
unrivalled  machine- work  is  done  in  metal,  is  equally 
impressed  with  the  other  fact  that  such  work  is  not 
done  for  love,  but  must  produce  a  profit — all  the 
profit  of  which  it  is  susceptible.  It  is  the  five  per 
cent  savings  here,  there,  and  everywhere  that  has  en- 
abled the  concern  to  lower  its  price  on  standard 
machines  50  per  cent  in  ten  years,  while  keeping  up 
and  even  raising  the  quality  of  workmanship  and  the 
quantity  of  metal. 

One  thing  struck  me — the  profusion  of  both  special 
and  standard  tools  and  appliances,  at  the  same  time 
that  all  there  were  in  perfect  order  and  condition, 
and  none  of  them  thrown  one  side  or  laid  down  care- 
lessly. Down  to  a  cold-chisel,  every  man  is  charged 
with  each  tool  that  he  gets,  and  charged  with  it  not 
merely  as  "one  cape-chisel,"  but  at  a  definite  price, 
thus  impressing  him  with  the  idea  that  it  is  not 
merely  so  many  ounces  of  steel,  but  something  cost- 
ing money,  worth  money,  and  used  for  making 
money.  This  system  is  so  much  better  than  the  plan 
employed  in  many  large  machine-shops  that  even  the 
very  details  by  which  it  is  carried  out  should  prove 
interesting  and  profitable. 

The  tool-list  (copy  of  which  is  here  given,  and 
which  is  commended  to  the  attention  of  machine- 
shop  proprietors  who  are  not  in  business  for  their 
health)  enables  an  accurate  account  to  be  kept  of  just 
what  each  man  gets,  returns,  spoils  or  loses.  The 
actual  size  is  3^  x  io^j  inches: 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


347 


BROWN    dk   SHARPE   MFG.    CO. 

TOOL  LIST. 


Drawer  No.. 


...189 


Each  workman  Is  provided  with  a  drawer  with  a  lock,  and  will  be  held  responsible 
for  tools,  at  prices  annexed. 


PRICK  EACH. 


LATHE  BOARD 

"  TOOLS 

OIL  CANS 

BENCH  BRUSH 

TIN  HANDLE  BRUSH. 

THREAD  BRUSH 

PAINT  "  

FILES  

FILE  CARD 

SCREW  DRIVERS.  ..  . 

HAND  TOOLS 

SCRAPERS 

CENTER  DRILLS 

"  REAMERS...  . 

VISE  CLAMPS 

COLD  CHISELS 

WOOD  MALLET 

BRASS  HAMMER 

LEAD  HAMMER 

DRAWER  KEY 

CHECK  No 


Other  tools  needed  can  be  obtained  from  the  tool-room  on  leaving  a  check  as 
receipt. 

Tools  to  be  delivered  to  the  owner  of  the  check  only,  and  must  be  returned  as 
soon  as  possible,  that  other  persons  wanting  them  may  not  be  delayed. 

All  damage  or  loss  of  tools  will  be  charged  to  the  owner  of  the  check,  unless  such 
damage  or  loss  proves  to  have  been  unavoidable. 


348  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

It  is  comprehensive  without  being  cumbersome ; 
concise  without  being  indefinite  and  ineffective. 

I  cannot  too  highly  commend  the  idea  of  charging 
tools  at  a  price  instead  of  as  mere  pieces  of  metal. 

Scraping  Fits  for  Steam=Engine  Valves,  etc.  The 
usual  way  of  making  a  scraping  fit  is  to  rub  the  two 
surfaces  together  in  the  same  line  that  they  are  to 
follow  in  their  movement  when  assembled  in  the 
machine,  and  to  scrape  away  the  metal  that  shows 
bearing  ;  very  thin  red  lead  being  rubbed  over  the 
surface  in  order  that  the  bearing  portions  may  show 
by  being  left  clean  after  rubbing.  But  after  this  has 
been  done  several  times  the  pores  in  the  surface  get 
filled  up  so  that  there  is  a  dirty  uniform  rust-color 
which  makes  it  difficult  to  see  what  parts  bear  and 
what  parts  do  not.  A  better  testing-material  is  spirits 
of  turpentine,  which  evaporates  rapidly  and  deposits 
almost  instantly  a  thin  visible  film,  without  however 
making  an  accumulation  of  dirt. 

How  to  Straighten  that  Shaft.  It  is  not  a  difficult 
matter  if  you  set  about  it  right.  That  means  center 
it  properly,  having  prick- punched  it  and  drilled  or 
reamed  it  properly  ;  and  work  the  square  center  well 
while  the  shaft  is  turned  as  fast  as  you  can  ;  then  a 
screw  press  which  traverses  the  lathe-body  is'applied  ; 
and  it  should  have  wedge-blocks  that  may  be  brought 
nearly  together  or  further  apart  at  will,  and  should 
have  on  the  top  V's  that  can  be  raised.  If  the  crook 
is  long,  the  wedge-blocks  are  moved  further  apart ;  if 
it  is  short,  then  they  should  be  closer  together.  Turn 
the  shaft,  and  as  it  turns  mark  it  with  chalk  every 
three  or  four  inches  all  along  ;  then  the  screw-press 
may  be  brought  into  operation. 

After  it  is  made  straight,  it  should  be  squared  true 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  349 

with  a  side  tool ;  then  the  centers  reamed  again  with 
the  square  center  and  drilled  about  an  eighth  of  an 
inch  deep  with  a  small  drill. 

Etching  on  Steel.  A  recent  recipe  for  etching 
brands  and  marks  on  polished  steel  surfaces  calls  for 
the  procuring  of  a  rubber  stamp  with  the  required 
design  made  so  that  the  letters  and  figures  which  are 
to  be  eaten  in  by  the  acid  shall  be  depressed  in  the 
stamp.  Any  one  who  starts  out  to  get  such  a  stamp 
will  find  himself  in  trouble.  He  must  first  go  to  a 
photo-engraver  and  get  an  intaglio  (white  on  black) 
cut,  which  will  cost  him  even  more  if  the  lettering  is 
to  be  plain  and  regular  than  if  it  is  not  necessary  to 
have  it  perfect.  This  photo-engraving  (which  will 
be  just  the  reverse  of  what  he  would  want  for  adver- 
tising purposes)  he  will  have  to  take  to  the  rubber- 
stamp  maker.  Once  obtained,  he  is  to  use  with  it  a 
resistant  varnish  or  ink  composed  of  resin  and  lard 
oil,  in  the  proportions  of  about  sixteen  to  one  in  bulk, 
with  a  little  turpentine  to  thin  it,  and  some  lamp- 
black to  make  it  show.  The  etching-fluid  is  one 
measure  of  nitric  acid  and  one  of  hydrochloric  to  ten 
of  water. 

In  order  to  be  able  to  use  the  ordinary  rubber 
stamps  which  can  be  got  anywhere  without  resort  to 
a  photo-engraver,  mix  a  small  amount  of  gum  with 
the  acid,  so  that  it  will  not  flow  too  freely,  and  apply 
it  with  the  stamp  to  the  surface  to  be  etched,  taking 
care  to  apply  the  stamp  squarely  and  to  lift  it  away 
squarely. 

For  Cutting  Steel  Bars  up  to  one  and  one-hall 
inches  square  it  will  do  to  cut  then  on  the  anvil  with  a 
sharp  cold-chisel  from  all  sides,  then  laying  a  small 


350  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

fuller  on  the  nick  and  forcing  the  pieces  apart  by  a 
clean  action. 

In  Grinding  Flange=Joints  by  hand  the  effort  of  put- 
ting on  sufficient  pressure  is  considerable  and  tires  the 
workman  unnecessarily  if  he  has  legs.  It  is  usually 
perfectly  feasible  to  attach  to  the  lap-plate  a  rope 
with  a  loop  at  the  free  end  so  that  it  may  be  hauled 
on  by  the  foot,  and  the  hands  and  arms  used  only  for 
rotating  the  lap. 

To  Make  Stencils  Without  Cutting-Tools,  mark  out 
on  tough  paper  the  desired  outlines  and  cut  them  out 
to  correspond  with  the  stencils  which  are  desired  to 
be  made  in  metal.  L,ay  these  paper  stencils  on  thin 
sheet  zinc ;  and  with  a  sponge  or  swab  moistened 
with  hydrochloric  acid  (which  some  call  chlorohy- 
dric,  and  others  call  muriatic  acid)  wet  the  zinc. 
The  acid  will  very  shortly  corrode  away  the  zinc  so 
that  it  may  be  pushed  through,  and  the  outlines  may 
then  be  filed  smooth. 

Cocking  Wing- Valves.  If  you  have  wing-valves 
which  cock  in  their  seats,  try  the  effect  of  giving  the 
wings  a  slight  taper.  They  are  ordinarily  made  per- 
fectly straight  to  prevent  cocking,  but  as  they  do  not 
make  a  perfect  fit,  the  parallelism  does  not  always 
prevent  their  cocking  ;  and  those  who  have  tried  say 
that  with  a  slight  taper  they  are  much  less  apt  to  mis- 
behave. 

Brazing  Cast  Iron.  I  have  just  received  a  note  from 
a  friend  in  a  distant  town,  asking  me  how  to  braze 
cast  iron.  I  thought  that  every  mechanic  knew  that. 
It  may  be  done  very  readily  by  having  the  iron  clean, 
making  it  free  from  grease  and  acids ;  applying  a  so- 
lution of  borax  to  the  surfaces  to  be  joined  ;  fastening 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT  351 

the  parts  together,  heating  in  a  clear  charcoal  fire,  and 
sprinkling  on  plenty  of  powdered  borax  and  brass  fil- 
ings ;  getting  the  iron  up  to  a  red  heat  before  any  of 
the  brass  melts,  yet  being  careful  not  to  let  any  of  the 
iron  melt.  When  the  brass  runs,  the  pieces  should  be 
immediately  removed  from  the  fire,  the  superfluous 
brass  wiped  off,  the  pieces  cooled  slowly,  and  the  joint 
then  finished. 

Gasket=Cutting.  You  are  making  a  botch  of  that 
rubber  gasket-cutting.  If  you  will  just  wet  your 
knife,  you  will  come  out  better  all  around — better 
job,  less  trouble,  and  sharper  knife  at  the  end  of  the 
work.  A  little  potash  and  water  or  soda  and  water 
would  be  better  than  pure  water,  if  it  was  handy. 

Die-Sinking.  Drop-forging  has  got  so  much  more 
common  now  than  it  used  to  be,  and  it  being  often 
inconvenient  for  those  who  have  dies  to  make,  it 
would  be  well  for  every  shop  to  consider  the  question 
of  die-sinking,  both  as  a  question  of  convenience  and 
as  a  matter  of  economy. 

There  are  many  who  have  made  failures  out  of  a 
few  dies  and  then  have  given  the  thing  up  in  despair 
or  disgust  and  send  all  their  orders  for  dies,  after  that, 
to  those  whose  regular  business  it  is  to  do  die-sinking 
and  nothing  else.  But  this  is  not  wise.  Bven  if  it 
be  found  best  to  order  one's  dies  regularly  of  a  duly- 
ordained  die-sinker,  it  is  wise  to  know  how  to  make 
one's  dies  oneself  in  case  the  die-sinker  should  be 
busy,  or  dead,  or  in  some  other  way  unable  to  do  your 
work  for  you.  The  first  thing  to  do  should  be  to 
make  a  finished  model  of  what  you  want  to  have 
forged,  and  having  done  it,  to  make  some  two-part 
plaster  casts  of  it,  to  see  how  it  u  delivers."  There  is 
nearlv  always  some  one  way  in  which  it  may  be  drawn 


352  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

better  than  another;  and  after  the  proper  parting  plane 
has  been  decided  on,  it  will  do  to  start  in  to  make 
the  die. 

Fifteen  cents'  worth  of  time  spent  in  making  plaster 
casts  of  the  model  will  sometimes  save  $15.00  worth 
of  time  spoiling  good  metal  to  make  poor  dies. 

In  many  cases. — perhaps  in  most  cases — the  form 
will  admit  of  being  struck  up  in  one  operation  from 
commercial  rod  or  bar  ;  and  in  this  case  the  next  step 
after  deciding  on  the  parting- plane  is  to  make  a  tem- 
plate representing  the  section  of  the  article  which 
would  be  made  by  that  parting-plane.  If  the  model 
is  of  wood  (and  it  is  best  that  it  should  be)  it  can  be 
cut  through  with  a  very  fine  saw  (the  ( '  very  ' '  being 
spelled  with  a  capital  V)  right  in  that  plane  ;  then 
each  half  of  the  model  will  represent  in  relief  (with 
the  trifling  exception  of  the  discrepancy  made  by  the 
saw-kerf)  what  the  die  should  be  in  intaglio  or  sunken. 
The  flat  side  of  the  cut  of  the  pattern  for  the  top  die 
will  serve  as  a  print  to  mark  out  on  the  block  for  the 
under  die,  the  lines  within  which  to  cut,  and  vice 
versa  ;  that  is,  painting  part  A  of  the  model  and  ap- 
plying to  the  block  that  is  to  make  part  B,  you  will 
have  the  lines  within  which  to  cut ;  and  painting  the 
parting-section  of  part  B  of  the  model  and  applying 
it  to  the  block  in  which  the  die  for  A  is  to  be  cut, 
you  will  have  the  outlines  within  which  to  work  for 
the  die  of  A. 

If  the  model  is  of  wood  it  will  not  hurt  it  to  drill 
holes  in  it ;  and  it  will  be  well  to  draw  on  the  part- 
ing-face of  each  half,  lines  a  regular  distance  apart, 
and  at  right  angles  with  each  other,  so  as  to  divide  the 
parting-side  of  each  half  of  the  pattern  into  squares. 
Then  drilling  down  with  a  very  fine  wood  twist-drill 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  353 

from  the  convex  side  of  each  part  of  the  model,  per- 
pendicularly to  the  parting- face,  from  the  most  prom- 
inent parts,  there  will  be  a  number  of  holes  which  will 
come  out  on  the  parting-face  in  certain  positions  with 
respect  to  each  other  and  to  the  lines  marking  the 
squares.  These  points  can  be  transferred  to  the  ruled- 
off  surface  of  the  block  ;  then  drilling  down  from  each 
of  these  points,  to  a  depth  within  say  one-fiftieth  inch 
of  the  depth  of  the  corresponding  hole  in  the  model, 
you  will  have  witness-marks  which  when  you  mill  in 
or  rout  out  will  tell  you  when  it  is  time  to  commence 
to  cut  less  boldly.  By  putting  ured  stuff'*  on  the 
model  and  applying  it  from  time  to  time  to  the  work, 
always  cutting  in  as  long  as  there  is  any  red  trans- 
ferred from  the  model  to  the  excavation,  and  paying 
attention  to  the  witness-marks,  which  will  tell  when 
to  commence  cutting  more  carefully,  the  dies  may  be 
made  the  proper  reverse  of  the  model,  without  any 
risk  of  overcutting. 

This  process  will  result  in  the  formation  of  the  one 
pair  of  dies  necessary  to  do  the  work,  if  it  can  be  done 
with  one  pair;  and  if  it  requires  more  than  one  pair, 
1}y  successive  forgings  (as  in  the  case  of  work  which 
is  very  much  spread)  it  will  give  the  last  pair ;  the 
other  set  or  sets  being  made  by  the  use  of  common 
sense  and  experience  in  the  application  of  the  princi- 
ples just  laid  down. 

Rubber  Joints  (or  "  gum  "  joints  as  they  are  called 
in  Philadelphia)  should  before  being  put  together  be 
coated  with  chalk  or  with  graphite  (plumbago  ;  black 
lead),  which  prevents  the  gum  from  sticking  to  the 
metal,  and  from  being  destroyed  when  the  joint  is 
taken  apart.  All  gum  joints  in  the  water  space  of 
steam  boilers  should  be  coated  with  lead  and  tallow 


354  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

before  being  put  together,  thus  preventing  the  sulphuf 
of  the  rubber  from  attacking  the  metal  and  destroying 
ts  surface. 

To  Test  Shellac,  dissolve  it  in  absolute  alcohol, 
which  will  dissolve  the  shellac  and  leave  the  impurities. 
Absolute  alcohol  should  indicate  1000  upon  an  alcohol- 
ometer. Pure  alcohol  will  all  burn  away;  that 
which  has  water  in  it  will  leave  most  of  the  water 
behind. 

Marking  Steel  Tools  may  be  done  by  covering  them 
with  wax,  engraving  the  marks  through  the  wax  down 
to  the  level  of  the  steel,  and  then  etching  with  the  fol- 
lowing mixture  :  i  ounce  of  sulphate  of  copper,  i^ 
ounces  of  alum,  %  teaspoonful  of  salt  reduced  to  pow 
der  with  one  gill  of  vinegar  and  20  drops  of  nitric  acid. 

Rusting  of  Machine-Tools  may  be  prevented  by  smear- 
ing the  bright  parts  with  a  mixture  of  lard  oil  and 
kerosene  in  equal  parts.  For  shipment,  a  mixture  of 
tallow  and  lime  will  be  found  much  better  and  cheaper 
than  the  usual  "smear  "  of  tallow  and  white-lead. 

Reckoning  Tapers.  The  ordinary  way  of  reckon- 
ing or  ordering  tapers  is  so  much  per  foot.  This  is 
inconvenient,  especially  as  the  articles  are  seldom 
any  even  number  of  feet  long.  It  might  be  better  to 
order  the  taper  so  much  in  one-hundred,  and  this 
could  be  readily  reckoned  and  laid  down  by  the 
ordinary  rule  graduated  into  one-hundredths. 

The  one-hundredth  rule  may  also  be  used  for  a 
shrink-rule,  as  iron  shrinks  about  one  per  cent. 

But  there  should  be  a  standard  taper,  no  matter  how 
reckoned. 

Standard  Tapers.  One  of  the  principal  signs  of 
our  advancement  in  mechanics  is  our  adoption  of 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


355 


universal  or  at  least  general  standards  for  so  many 
things — screw-threads,  gear- teeth,  wire-gages,  etc. 
We  have  not  yet,  however,  quite  got  to  perfection 
and  general  agreement  in  the  matter  of  standard 
tapers,  as  for  lathe-centers,  arbors,  collets,  chucks, 
drill-press  sockets,  milling-machine  spindles,  and 
tapered  parts  of  metal-working  machines  gener- 


F 


No.  10 


-i. 


.4.  _ 


4.1875— 


._t. 


No.  9 


r 

.1. 


-5.125" -H 


FIGS.  214  TO  216. — "  JARNO  "AND  OTHERTAPERS.  (BROWN  &  SHARPE.) 

ally ;  and  the  multiplicity  of  tapers  before  exist- 
ing makes  it  very  hard  to  get  any  new  one  or  even 
any  old  one  adopted  and  used  as  a  general  standard. 

I  have  been  looking  over  the  ground  pretty 
thoroughly,  and  think  that  what  is  known  as  the 
* '  Jarno  ' '  taper  (it  being  a  pretty  open  secret  that 
this  originated  with  Mr.  Beale  of  Providence)  is 


356  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

practical  in   application   and  easy  to  remember   and 
understand. 

As  shown  in  the  annexed  illustration,  Figure  214, 
the  rate  of  taper  is  always  one  in  twenty  ;  the  tapers 
are  numbered  i,  2,  3,  etc. ;  the  number  of  the  taper 
designating  the  number  of  tenths  of  an  inch  at  the 
small  end,  the  number  of  eighths  of  an  inch  at  the 
large  end,  and  the  number  of  halves  of  an  inch  in 
length.  Thus :  number  i  is  one-tenth  inch  at  the 
small  end,  one  and  one-eighth  inch  at  the  larger  end, 
and  one-half  inch  long  ;  number  5  is  five-tenths  inch 
at  the  small  end,  and  five-eighths  inch  at  the  large  end, 
andz}4  inches  long.  The  other  tapers, Figures  2 15  and 
216,  are  something  and  a  fraction  by  something  else 
and  some  other  fraction  ;  and  their  numbers  have  no 
relation  to  any  of  their  dimensions  or  proportions. 

An  Item  About  the  Dynamo.  Many  inventors  are 
trying  to  get  out  of  the  dynamo  a  greater  duty  than  is 
possible.  Many  others  also,  failing  to  see  the  princi- 
ples on  which  the  machine  works,  get  poorer  results 
than  they  should  get. 

If  we  move  a  wire  in  the  "  field  "  of  a  fixed  wire, 
through  which  a  current  passes,  the  moving  wire  will 
have  generated  in  it  a  current  having  an  electromotive 
force  proportionate  to  the  intensity  of  the  current  in 
the  fixed  wire,  to  the  speed  at  which  the  moving  wire 
passes  through  the  field,  and  to  the  effective  length  of 
the  moving  wire.  The  greater  the  speed  the  greater 
ths  electromotive  force.  By  insufficient  rotation-speed, 
or  rather  insufficient  actual  speed  in  feet  per  minute, 
irrespective  of  the  number  of  turns  per  minute,  there 
is  obtained  an  electromotive  force  lower  than  should 
be  possible.  In  building  small  machines  designers 
are  apt  to  forget  that  high  rotation-speed  does  not 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


357 


necessarily  imply  high  actual  speed  in  feet  per  minute ; 
and  they  expect  an  armature  six  inches  in  diameter, 
at  six  hundred  turns,  to  produce  the  same  electro- 
motive force  as  one  twelve  inches  in  diameter  at  the 
same  number  of  turns  per  minute.  They  also  forget 
that  in  the  small  armature  there  will  be  fewer  feet  of 
wire  moving.  With  fewer  feet  of  wire  and  lower 
speed,  it  is  not  possible  to  get  the  same  result,  the  in- 
tensity of  the  current  in  the  fixed  wire  being  the  same. 
A  Simple  Rotary  Blower  may  be  made  by  making  a 
stiff  light  cylindrical  drum,  A,  hung  eccentrically 
and  giving  running  (not  standing)  balance  on  a  cock- 
head,  and  rotating  it  in  another  cylindrical  drum,  B> 


FIG.  217. — SIMPLE  ROTARY  BLOWER. 

as  shown  in  Figure  217  ;  using  as  a  valve  a  leather 
flap,  V.  It  will  not  have  to  be  driven  at  a  high 
speed.  The  arrow  shows  the  required  direction  of 
rotation. 

Special  flachines.     The  advantage  of  having  special 
machines  to  do  special  work  where  there  is  much  of 


358  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

that  special  work  to  be  done  (as  in  manufacturing,  as 
distinguished  from  jobbing  or  occasional  building) 
may  be  seen  by  a  case  cited  in  the  American  Machin- 
ist, where  a  workman,  having  some  holes  to  make  in 
machine  steel,  started  a  man  at  it  with  the  result  of  a 
hole  in  five  hours,  while  a  Hartford  builder  of  machine- 
tools  has  a  machine  guaranteed  to  make  one  every 
ten  minutes.  This  is  just  thirty  to  one  in  favor  of 
machine- work — if  you  have  enough  of  the  work  to  be 
done.  It  would  not,  however,  pay  to  buy  a  $290 
machine  to  do  $29  worth  of  work,  and  perhaps  not 
have  another  job  of  the  same  kind  within  two  years. 

fletal-Finishing  flachine  Wanted.  There  is  one 
wood- working  tool  which  might  very  well  be  imitated 
in  the  metal- working  line — the  sand-papering  machine 
having  a  horizontal  arm  with  from  one  to  two  hinge 
joints  in  its  length,  and  bearing  at  its  free  end  a 
belted  horizontal  sand-paper  drum  which  is  made  to 
traverse  every  square  inch  of  the  upper  surface  of  the 
piece,  as  a  door,  which  it  is  intended  to  smooth.  A 
similar  jointed  arm  having  free  motion  in  a  horizontal 
plane,  and  carrying  an  emery  disk,  would  be  very  use- 
ful in  drilling- machines,  especially  in  boiler  and  bridge 
work  where  there  is  much  drilling,  reaming  and  coun- 
tersinking to  do  all  over  the  surface  of  work  of  con- 
siderable surface.  Such  a  machine  could  be  run  very 
well  with  either  a  flat  belt  or  a  cotton  or  Manila  rope. 

The  Double=Threaded  Screw.  An  inventor  came  to 
me  the  other  day  with  a  machine  in  which  he  pro- 
posed, incidentally,  to  double  the  power  of  a  screw 
by  having  it  double-threaded  ;  and  it  took  me  longer 
than  the  job  is  worth  to  convince  him  that,  instead  of 
his  doubling  the  power  by  doubling  the  thread,  he 
really  halved  it.  Reference  to  the  accompanying 


MA  CHINE  SHOP  CHA  T.  359 

illustration  of  a  double  square-threaded  screw  should 
make  the  matter  clear. 

In  any  screw  the  pitch  is  the  distance  between 
centers  of  adjacent  turns  of  the  same  thread,  measured 
in  a  line  parallel  with  the  axis  or  center-line  of  the 
screw  considered  as  a  whole.  Every  time  that  the 
screw  is  turned  once  around  in  its  nut,  it  will  advance 
a  distance  equal  to  the  pitch  ;  half  a  turn  giving  an 
advance  of  half  the  distance,  and  so  on.  If  the  nut 
is  turned  on  the  screw,  one  complete  turn  advances 
it  the  amount  of  the  pitch.  Conversely,  if  the  pitch 
is  very  fast  or  steep,  and  the  screw  is  pushed  in  the 


FIG.  218. — DOUBLE- THREADED  SCREW. 

nut  or  the  nut  pushed  along  the  screw,  advance  of 
either,  the  distance  of  the  pitch  will  cause  one  com- 
plete rotation  of  whichever  one  is  free  to  turn. 

The  gain  in  power  by  a  screw  is,  without  deducting 
for  friction,  proportionate  to  the  ratio  between  the  dis- 
tance that  the  power  moves  circumferentially  or  slight- 
ly spirally,  and  that  through  which  the  screw  moves 
lengthwise.  Thus  if  the  screw  has  one-inch  pitch, 
and  a  lever  one  foot  long  measured  from  the  center  line 
of  the  screw  in  a  plane  at  right  angles  to  the  axis,  and 
in  a  radial  line  in  that  plane,  the  theoretical  gain  in 
power  (that  is,  the  gain  not  allowing  for  the  loss  by 
friction)  would  be  equal  to  12  x  6. 2 428-4-  i  equals 


360  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

74.9136 ;  since  the  power  that  turned  the  lever 
would  pass  through  74.9136  inches  in  making  the 
screw  advance  one  inch. 

If  instead  of  having  only  one  thread  with  a  pitch  of 
one  inch  there  be  two  threads  wrapped  parallel  with 
each  other  about  the  central  cylinder  of  the  screw,  it 
is  evident  that,  with  the  same  width  of  screw-thread  as 
with  the  single  thread,  the  pitch  will  be  doubled  ;  and 
that  every  turn  of  the  screw  by  its  attached  lever  will 
advance  the  screw  (or  its  nut)  two  inches  instead  of 
one.  While  at  first  glance  this  may  seem  to  be  doub- 
ling the  power,  it  is  in  reality  halving  it ;  a  force  of 
one  pound  moving  through  the  74.9136  inches  at  the 
end  of  the  lever  will  cause  an  advance  of  screw  or  nut 
of  two  inches,  and  thus  increase  the  power  only  74.9136 
-f-  2  equals  37.4568  times  as  a  maximum ;  friction 
having  to  be  deducted  in  this  case  as  in  the  last> 
although  it  will  not  be  the  same  for  a  double-threaded 
screw  as  for  one  with  but  a  single  thread. 

If  we  wrap  three  parallel  threads  about  the  center  or 
axis,  the  pitch  will  be  three  inches  instead  of  one,  and 
the  power  multiplied  only  74.9136— 1-3  equals  24.9718- 
times  as  a  maximum. 

With  a  less  pitch,  say  only  one-half  inch,  a  single 
thread  with  a  twelve-inch  lever  will  multiply  the  power 
74.9136^-^  equals  149.8272  times;  with  a  double 
thread  the  same  as  the  last  the  pitch  would  be  one  inch 
and  the  power  multiplied  74.9136^—1  equals  74.9136 
times  as  in  the  case  of  the  single- threaded  screw  of  one- 
inch  pitch.  In  every  case,  no  matter  what  the  pitch, 
nor  what  the  number  of  threads,  the  maximum  mul- 
tiplication of  power  is  equal  to  the  distance  that  the 
power  moves  through  in  one  turn,  divided  by  the 
distance  that  the  screw  or  nut  advances  in  one  turn. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  361 

It  should  be  understood  that  the  mere  fact  of  hav- 
ing a  twelve-inch  lever  will  not  cause  the  multipli- 
cation of  the  power  unless  the  power  is  applied  at  the 
end  of  the  lever.  To  apply  the  power  at  the  middle 
of  a  twelve-inch  lever  would  be  practically  having 
only  a  six-inch  lever. 

Having  a  lever  then  twelve  inches  long  but  ap- 
plied in  any  other  than  a  plane  at  right  angles  to  the 
axis  of  the  screw  will  not  give  the  same  results  as 
where  the  lever. lies  in  that  plane.  The  actual  lever 
is  the  shortest  distance  between  the  point  where  the 
power  is  applied  and  the  axial  line  of  the  screw. 

Chimney-Climbing.  There  should  be  a  law  against 
building  any  chimney  or  stack  without  climbing-irons 
either  inside  or  out ;  because  it  is  not  right  to  endan- 
ger men's  lives  whenever  a  trifling  repair  has  to  be 
made. 

The  old-fashioned  way  of  flying  a  kite  over  the 
chimney  and  trying  to  get  the  string  to  drop  just 
right  sometimes  took  several  days.  Next  to  that  the 
ladder  system  is  rather  more  certain,  but  unquestion- 
ably rough ;  and  then  it  demands  fine  weather,  and  is' 
very  dangerous. 

In  Liverpool,  England,  the  Alkali  Co.  had  a  big 
chimney  which  was  successfully  climbed  by  a  rig  got 
up  by  Brown  &  Porter  of  that  city,  and  which  I 
show  as  applied  to  a  round  and  a  square  brick  chim- 
ney ;  however,  the  second  form  may  be  used  for  those 
of  a  hexagonal  or  octagonal  section  also. 

The  staging  shown  in  Figure  219  is  three-sided 
and  consists  of  an  upper  and  a  lower  story  connected 
at  each  corner  by  vertical  clamps.  At  the  left  is  seen 
a  screw  worked  by  the  handle  Ay  and  serving  to  give 
a  tight  grip  against  the  chimney  ;  the  two  corners  of 


36* 


SHOP  KINKS 


the  stage  opposite  this  screw  being  hinged.  Three 
rollers  marked  E  are  provided  and  set  at  an  angle, 
one  at  each  side  of  the  three-sided  staging .  These  bear 
against  the  chimney,  and  the  one  to  the  right  can  be 
turned  around  by  a  handle,  worm  and  worm-wheel 
C.  Turning  this  roller  causes  the  entire  staging  to 


FIGS.  219  AND  220. — CHIMNEY-CLIMBERS.     (BROWN  &  PORTER.) 

climb  the  chimney  spirally.  If  the  shaft  is  cylindri- 
cal, no  adjustment  of  the  screw  A  need  be  made ;  if 
it  tapers,  this  screw  will  have  to  be  gradually  tight- 
ened as  the  stage  ascends,  in  order  to  give  the 
rollers  enough  grip. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT,  363 

Figure  220  has  several  advantages  over  Figure 
219,  in  that  it  can  be  adapted  to  any  form  of  chimney, 
and  it  is  more  readily  operated.  There  are  two  stout 
timber  grippers  which  may  be  fastened  to  the  chim- 
ney by  two  long  bolts,  one  each  side  of  the  chimney. 
To  these  timber  grippers  are  hung  by  four  chains  two 
smaller  ones  also  capable  of  being  bolted  to  the  chim- 
ney ;  and  to  these  lower  ones  the  stage  is  fastened. 
The  lower  and  the  upper  grippers  are  also  connected 
by  two  two-inch  steel  screws.  The  operation  of  climb- 
ing is  as  follows  :  suppose  the  upper  grippers  to  be 
screwed  fast  and  the  lower  ones  to  be  loose,  so  that 
the  stage  weight  will  be  held  by  the  chains ;  work- 
ing the  screws,  the  stage  is  raised  ;  when  it  is  high 
enough,  the  lower  grippers  are  fastened  by  tighten- 
ing the  bolts,  thus  taking  the  weight  from  the  upper 
grippers.  Then  these  may  be  raised  still  further  by 
working  the  screws  the  reverse  way ;  when  the 
chains  are  tight  again,  the  upper  grippers  are  fastened 
as  before,  and  the  lower  ones  released,  and  so  on. 

Climbing  a  Chimney  with  Ladders.  A  long  time  ago 
an  English  firm  built  a  chimney  320  feet  high  ;  out- 
side diameter  tapering  from  1 7  feet  4  inches  to  9  feet ; 
and  forgot  to  put  climbing  irons  on  it.  When  it  became 
necessary  to  put  on  a  new  copper  lightning-conductor 
and  to  repair  the  chimney,  the  work  was  done  by  using 
fifteen  ordinary  light  painters'  ladders  weighing  from 
20  to  50  pounds,  according  to  their  length,  and  hav- 
ing an  average  width  of  n^  inches  at  bpttom  and  10 
at  the  top.  Wooden  distance-pieces  were  provided  at 
the  back  of  the  ladders  at  the  top  to  keep  them  off 
from  the  brickwork.  The  mounting  was  done  by 
placing  the  first  ladder  at  the  base  of  the  shaft,  and 
driving  a  hooked  wrought-iron  dog  or  holdfast  into 


364  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

the  brickwork,  four  feet  from  the  bottom  of  the  ladder; 
then  a  second  iron  dog  was  driven  into  the  shaft  about 
four  feet  down  from  the  ladder-top  ;  and  the  ladder 
was  lashed  to  these.    The  workman  then 
climbed   until  he  could  reach   about   four 
feet  above  the  first  length,  drove  in  another 
dog,  to  which  he  attached  a  pulley-block. 
One  end  of  the  pulley-rope  was    fastened 
half    way  down,  a  second    ladder    placed 
by  the   side  of  the   first,  and  this  second 
ladder    hauled    up    by    workmen    at    the 
base  until  it  was  half  its  height  above  the 
first  ladder.     It  was  then  temporarily  lash- 
ed to  the  first  length ;  the  workman  climbed 
up  it  and  drove  another  holdfast  into  the 
bricks,  four  feet  above  the  top  of  the  second 
ladder,  shifted  the  pulley-block  to  the  upper 
holdfast,  and  descended ;    then  the  second 
ladder   was   hoisted    above    the    first    one 
(which  it  overlapped  two  rounds)  and  its 
bottom  lashed  to  the  top  of  the  first  one. 
Then    the   climber    mounted    the   second 
ladder  (which  was  still  held  by  the  pulley, 
block  and  rope)  and  drove  in   a  holdfast 
above,  shifted  the  pulley-block,  and  pro- 
ceeded with  the  third  ladder  as  with  the  sec- 
ond ;  and  so  on.     But  when  the  under  side 
FIG.  221.    of  the  cap  was  reached  there  was  trouble, 
CCfflMNEYA  caused  by  a  stone  cornice  projecting  about 
WITH      three  feet  from  the  face  of  the  shaft.    At  this 
LADDERS,  point    the   ladder  was   fixed   very  firmly; 
another    length  was    hauled  up  until  its  top  was 
about  five  feet  above  the  cornice,  and  this  slanting 
length   was    lashed  to   the  length  below  at  its  foot. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT. 


365 


at  intermediate  points,  and  also  close  underneath  the 
cornice.  When  climbing  this  length  the  workman's 
back  was  towards  the  ground.  The  last  ladder  was 
hauled  up  and  fixed  above  the  cornice,  reaching  to 
the  top  of  the  chimney;  and  to  the  bottom  of  this  the 
top  of  the  slanting  ladder  was  firmly  lashed.  It  took 
five  hours  to  do  all  this. 

Fire  Buckets.  It  seems  that  in  some  shops  even  a 
system  of  fines  will  not  prevent  workmen  from  using 
the  fire  buckets  for  washing  their  hands,  or  for  other 
purposes  entirely  unnecessary  and  forbidden. 

In  the  Newton  shops  that  is  not  likely  to  occur, 
for  they  are  all  hung  up  and  have  conical  bottoms,  so 
that  they  could  not  be  made  to  stand  up  without 
more  trouble  than  even  the  most  persistent  would  be 
apt  to  take  in  the  matter. 

Elevator  Stop.  Haskins  has  a  handy  rig  for  stop- 
ping an  elevator  at  any  point  whether  going  up  or 


FIG.  222. — STOP  DEVICE  FOR  ELEVATOR  ROPES. 

coming  down.     As  shown  in  Figure  222,  it  consists  of 
two  ropes  c  and  d,  attached  to  a  long  rope  /,  extending 


366  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

to  the  bottom  of  the  elevator  well  or  to  the  first  land- 
ing,  and  attached  above  the  upper  landing.  When  the 
elevator  is  started  it  occupies  the  position  shown  by 
letters  a  and  6;  but  when  it  is  desired  to  stop, 
pulling  the  rope  e,  the  cords  are  brought  into  the 
position  shown  by  c  and  d. 

As  to  Scrap=Heaps.  It  is  the  wisest  man  who 
profits  by  experience.  Most  experience  that  may  be 
profited  by  is  expensive  to  some  one  or  other ;  and 
this  is  the  case  whether  it  has  been  successful  or  un- 
successful. But  as  there  is  more  unsuccessful  than 
successful  experience,  it  naturally  follows  that  we 
may  learn  more  from  failures  than  from  successes. 
The  scrap-heap  measures  in  great  degree  the  quantity 
and  kind  of  failures  that  take  place,  and  there  are 
many  lessons  which  may  be  learned  from  it,  as  to 
how  not  to  do  things.  If  there  are  but  two  ways  of 
doing  a  thing  wrong  we  may  probably  find  which 
one  of  them  is  the  right  one  by  the  story  of  the 
wrong  one  as  told  in  the  scrap-heap.  If  there  are 
thirteen  wrong  ways  to  one  right  one,  we  can  still 
study  the  scrap-heap  to  find  from  one  to  thirteen  of 
these  wrong  ways,  and  by  induction  we  may  find  the 
fourteenth  and  right  way. 

I  remember  that  a  number  of  years  ago  I  was 
called  in  to  report  on  the  desirability  of  equipping  a 
very  large  brick-yard  with  a  certain  class  of  brick- 
machines  costing  about  $15,000  apiece.  There  was 
a  number  of  molds  in  a  horizontal  rotating  table  and 
having  false  bottoms  which  rose  and  fell  by  the 
action  of  a  circular  inclined  cam- table,  thus  compress- 
ing the  clay  that  was  filled  into  the  molds  and  then 
pushing  out  the  compressed  block  as  a  "green"  brick 
ready  to  be  carried  away  and  hacked.  Each  of  these 


MACHISE  SHOP  CHAT.  367 

pistons  or  false  bottoms  had  a  wrought-iron  stem  with 
an  anti-friction  roller  on  the  bottom  ;  and  it  seemed 
to  me  that  these  stems  were  always  getting  a  bending 
stress  which  would  not  improve  them  in  connection 
with  the  severe  compressive  strain  thereon.  I  asked 
about  this — if  the  machines  were  not  troublesome 
from  this  cause,  and  was  told  that  there  was  no  diffi- 
culty whatever  ;  that  they  rose  and  fell  without  ever 
giving  any  bother  or  causing  any  expense  for  renew- 
als. I  took  this  statement  with  a  grain  or  so  of  salt, 
and  took  occasion  to  look  into  a  large  chest  in  the 
corner,  which  it  did  not  seem  to  me  was  a  necessary 
part  of  the  equipment  of  a  brick-yard.  I  found  in  it 
quite  a  supply  of  spare  "  stems, "  and  also  a  very 
much  larger  supply  of  broken  and  bent  ones,  cracked 
rollers,  scored  steel  face-plates  from  the  cam- table,  and 
so  on.  From  this  scrap-heap  I  got  my  cue.  I  was  sure 
that  the  builders  were  lying ;  and  the  only  way  to 
prove  it  was  either  to  stay  around  and  wait  for  a  stem 
to  break,  or  to  find  the  scrap-heap. 

On  another  occasion  I  was  commissioned  to  report 
as  to  the  rock-drills  for  use  in  an  important  public 
work  abroad ;  and  as  I  knew  that  in  the  United  States 
work  at  Flood  Rock  (commonly  called  Hell  Gate) 
there  were  examples  of  almost  every  kind  of  rock-drill 
used,  I  went  there  duly  armed  with  a  letter  of  intro- 
duction to  the  lieutenant  in  charge.  Before  present- 
ing it  however,  I  cast  my  eyes  about  for  the  scrap- 
heap,  knowing  that  there  I  would  find  the  record  of 
broken  and  worn  out  parts,  and  would  then  be  rather 
better  posted  as  to  the  wearing  of  tappets,  slide-valves, 
etc.,  than  I  would  be  if  I  trusted  to  the  statements  of 
those  interested — no  matter  how  honest  they  might 
be.  The  result  was  that  I  found  a  certain  number  of 


368  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

tappets  of  one  machine  ;  a  certain  number  of  slide- 
valves  of  another,  and  so  on.  What  I  saw  very  ma- 
terially aided  me  in  questioning  those  who  were  using 
the  drills  in  their  actual  work,  and  in  making  up  the 
report  to  my  foreign  clients. 

I  would  say  to  every  one  who  is  either  inventing  or 
manufacturing  any  lines  in  which  there  are  machines 
of  other  kinds  at  work — ' (  keep  your  eye  on  the  scrap- 
heaps.  "  The  inventor  wants  to  know  what  parts  of 
his  rival's  give  way,  so  as  to  be  able  to  avoid  falling 
into  similar  errors  ;  the  manufacturer  wants  to  know 
not  only  what  parts  of  his  rivals'  machines  are  giving 
way,  but  what  parts  of  his  own  are  defective. 

It  does  not,  however,  follow  that  the  presence  of  a 
great  number  of  pieces  of  a  certain  kind  in  a  scrap- 
heap  argues  inefficiency  on  the  part  of  the  machine  ; 
as  it  is  often  cheaper  to  throw  away  one  part  than  to 
refit  it  or  to  furnish  it  with  facilities  for  adjustment  or 
repair.  But  if  there  is  any  one  part  which  should  go 
into  the  scrap-heap  it  should  be  some  small,  unimport- 
ant piece  that  is  cheap  to  make  and  easy  to  put  in  place. 
Of  two  wearing  parts,  that  one  should  be  the  one  to 
go  into  the  scrap-heap  which  costs  the  least  to  replace. 
Thus,  if  there  should  be  no  difference  in  the  quality 
and  hardness  of  metal  between  a  slide-valve  and  the 
cylinder  which  forms  the  seat  on  which  it  plays,  the 
slide  should  be  the  softer,  so  that  it  may  get  the  wear; 
as  to  reface  it  or  to  replace  will  be  cheaper  than  to  do 
the  same  with  the  cylinder. 

The  Language  of  flachines.  Garner  has  been 
showing  that  brute  animals,  such  as  monkeys  and 
others,  have  a  language  of  their  own  by  which  they 
may  communicate  ideas  to  each  other  and  by  which 
he  can  in  some  cases  impress  ideas  on  them.  There 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  369 

lias  long  ago  been  shown  to  be  a  "  language  of 
flowers,'1  but  that  is  only  figurative;  of  course, 
plants  cannot  tell  one  another  what  they  want  and 
think.  But  that  machines  have  a  language,  there  is 
no  doubt ;  any  old  mechanic  can  understand  it.  Al- 
though he  cannot  make  machines  understand  what  he 
means,  he  can  readily  understand  what  they  mean. 

For  instance,  there  is  the  screeching  of  belts.  It 
takes  a  good  mimic  to  imitate  it,  but  almost  any  one 
recognizes  it  on  first  hearing.  It  means  that  they 
are  oily,  or  that  they  are  overloaded ;  for  each  trouble 
they  have  a  distinct  cry,  just  as  a  child  has  separate 
cries  for  the  thirst  of  fever  and  for  a  stubbed  toe. 

Then  there  is  the  language  of  the  engine  ;  it  may 
mean  that  the  main  bearing  is  loose  and  the  crank- 
shaft lifting  at  every  stroke ;  or  that  the  piston-rod  is 
loose  in  the  crosshead,  or  that  the  piston-head  is 
loose  on  the  rod,  or  that  there  is  water  in  the  cylinder, 
or  that  the  steam-pipe  is  on  too  sharp  an  angle  and 
44  kicks"  every  time  that  the  engine  cuts  off  sharply, 
or  that  the  valves  are  wrongly  set,  or  any  one  of  a 
dozen  things. 

Steam-pipes  have  really  only  two  expressions. 
One  is  that  to  which  I  just  referred,  in  connection 
with  the  steam-engine  ;  an  expression  that  they  have 
been  laid  out  and  put  in  wrong.  .  The  other  is  a  very 
appropriate  hiss  for  those  who  have  allowed  joints  to 
leak  and  steam  to  escape.  No  one  should  submit  to 
have  this  imputation  on  his  thoroughness  as  a  me- 
chanic continue  to  be  hissed  at. 

A  line  of  shafting  has  a  cry  of  pain  which  shows 
how  the  delicate  skin  of  the  journal  and  bearing  is 
being  rubbed  away  by  the  lack  of  oil.  No  compas- 
sionate shop-owner  or  foreman  should  allow  that 


370  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

cry  of  pain  to  be  heard  very  long  in  any  one  place. 

I  could  go  on  and  multiply  instances  of  the  lan- 
guage of  machines  and  their  appurtenances,  just  to 
point  out  that  those  who  watch  to  hear  them  may 
learn  much  which  will  benefit  them  and  those  con- 
nected with  them.  u  None  so  deaf  as  those  who 
will  not  hear  n  is  an  old  saying  and  a  true  one.  Some 
men  go  on  day  after  day,  hearing  such  noises  and 
never  paying  any  attention  to  them  ;  in  fact  they  get 
deaf  to  them — and  some  day  they  regret  it. 

Emergencies.  About  as  good  a  subject  as  any 
other  for  a  chat  is  that  of  emergencies.  While  it 
may  not  appeal  just  at  the  present  moment  to  more 
than  two  per  cent  of  my  readers,  the  time  will  come 
when  every  one  of  them  will  probably  remember 
with  more  or  less  thankfulness  that  at  one  time  I 
called  their  attention  to  the  desirability  of  being  in 
time  of  peace  prepared  for  war  ;  and  to  the  advantage 
that  a  man  has,  who  is  ready  for  emergencies,  over 
one  who  is  only  ready  for  every-day  work  and  condi- 
tions. 

There  are  two  principal  classes  of  men  who  are 
never  ready  to  meet  any  unexpected  conditions  or  cir- 
cumstances— the  incompetent  kind  and  the  kind  that 
get ' '  rattled  ' '  whether  or  not  they  have  in  them  the 
knowledge  that  would  bring  them  out  of  the  hole. 
Those  of  the  first  kind  are  much  more  likely  to  get 
experience  than  those  of  the  second  kind  are  to  get 
steady  nerve  ;  but  still,  for  all  that,  the  first  time 
that  one  has  an  engine  run  away  with  him,  or  gets 
caught  by  a  fast-running  shaft,  or  is  confronted  with 
the  breakage  of  his  best  tool  or  the  loss  of  his  best 
help,  difficulties  do  not  seem  to  be  quite  so  easily  over- 
come as  after  about  the  twenty-first  time  ;  and  some 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  371 

of  the  bravest  soldiers  are  said  to  have  been  quite 
overcome  by  fear  the  first  time  that  they  were  under 
fire. 

There  are  in  the  country  some  establishments  that 
have  the  reputation  of  being  u  big  little  shops,  "  be- 
cause of  the  size  of  the  work  that  they  turn  out  com- 
pared with  the  dimensions  of  the  establishments  or 
of  the  tools  that  they  have  in  them.  Such  a  concern 
used  to  be  that  of  the  Fletchers  of  New  York  City — who 
took  the  contracts  for  the  noted  Sound  steamers  '  *  Puri- 
tan' '  and  *  'Pilgrim/ '  where  some  establishments  about 
three  times  the  size  would  not  have  dared  attempt 
them.  There  are  some  shipyards  in  the  country 
that  I  verily  believe  would  undertake  to  dock  a  500- 
foot  steamer  in  a  3OO-foot  dry-dock.  They  would 
manage  it  somehow,  if  they  had  to  stand  the  boat  on 
end  or  build  a  caisson  all  around  one  end  of  her,  as  a 
sort  of  bay  window  to  the  front  of  the  dock. 

Perhaps,  instead  of  my  generalizing  very  much  to 
start  out  with,  it  will  be  much  more  interesting  to  my 
readers  to  go  into  particulars  and  recall  some  jobs 
that  have  been  done  with  inferior  appliances. 

I  remember  once,  when  the  dash-pots  of  an  old 
side-frame  Corliss  engine  were  sent  out  to  be  re-bored 
and  came  back  not  bored  down  far  enough,  so  that 
there  was  at  the  bottom  of  each  pot  a  shoulder  against 
which  the  plunger  struck  (I  had  only  twenty-four 
hours  to  take  the  engine  down,  put  in  new  piston- 
packing  and  new  brasses  all  around,  line  up  the  whole 
engine  and  adjust  the  valves,  and  get  it  running 
again,  and  the  shop  was  a  good  distance  off),  I 
chipped  the  bore  out  myself  with  what  chisels  I 
could  find  about  the  engine-room  and  got  the  machine 
turning  over  just  about  ten  minutes  before  the  mill 


372  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

had  been  absolutely  sworn  to  start  up.  It  was  a 
cheeky  piece  of  work  to  do,  but  it  had  to  be  done  ; 
it  was  in  February,  which  was  a  short  month,  and 
the  product  of  the  mill  in  stated  quantities  had  to  be 
shipped  by  vessel  the  first  of  the  next  month,  and  as 
there  were  from  two  to  three  days  short  in  that  month 
anyway,  and  there  had  been  several  stoppages  before 
the  day  used  for  the  repairs,  it  was  a  matter  of  having 
to  get  there  some  way  or  other.  It  was  a  case  like 
that  of  the  services  which  were  announced  to  take 
place  on  the  following  Sunday  '  *  in  the  morning,  fine 
weather  and  Divine  Providence  permitting,  and  in  the 
afternoon  whether  or  no.  n  That  flour  had  to  be 
shipped  whether  or  no,  and  the  chisels  removed  the 
obstacle. 

One  of  the  best  examples  of  doing  work  with  insuf- 
ficient appliances  was  seen  at  the  Centennial  in 
Philadelphia,  where  a  young  Russian  engineer  resid- 
ing in  that  city  took  a  seventy-five  ton  cannon  out  of 
a  boat  with  a  fifty-ton  crane — by  raising  only  one 
end  at  a  time,  blocking  it  up,  and  then  going  to  the 
other  end,  until  the  cannon  was  high  enough  up  to 
be  rolled  off  on  the  wharf. 

I  have  asked  some  of  my  friends  to  jot  down -for 
my  readers'  benefits  some  of  their  experiences  in  get- 
ting over  one-hundred-foot  streams  with  fifty-foot 
bridges,  and  their  replies,  given  below,  should  prove 
as  useful  as  they  are  interesting. 

My  old  friend,  Wm.  M.  Henderson,  a  veteran 
engineer  from  the  "  Land  o'  Cakes  "  and  one  of  -the 
earliest  and  most  competent  designers  of  steam  fire- 
engines  and  hydraulic  machinery  in  this  country, 
tells  the  following : 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHA  T.  373 

4  *  When  I  was  one  of  the  Government  engineers  in 
Chili,  S.  A.,  in  charge  of  the  building  of  stone 
bridges  on  the  Valparaiso  and  Santiago  R.  R.,  being 
out  on  the  line  one  day  on  a  hand-car,  my  progress 
was  stopped  by  a  locomotive  on  the  single  line  of  road, 
about  four  miles  out  from  Santiago.  After  waiting  a 
reasonable  time  for  the  locomotive  to  back  out  of  the 
way,  I  walked  up  to  the  engine,  and  found  the  en- 
gineer, a  Mr.  Ames,  an  American,  under  the  engine, 
taking  off  the  suspension-bar  for  operating  the 
Stevenson  link.  As  he  got  it  off  and  handed  it  to 
me  I  saw  it  was  blue  at  the  joints.  The  pin  was 
wrenched  off.  I  remarked,  4  That  was  caused  by  lack 
of  oil.  I  wish  you  would  back  your  engine  on  to 
the  nearest  siding  to  let  me  pass.'  But  the  link  had 
dropped  into  forward  gear  and  he  said  it  was  impos- 
sible to  back  the  engine,  as  he  could  not  reverse. 
Now  I  was  brought ,  up  in  a  locomotive-shop,  and 
asked  him  if  he  would  let  me  help  him.  He  was 
only  too  glad,  being  on  his  beam  ends.  I  procured 
a  piece  of  rope  out  of  the  tool-box  on  the  tender  and 
looped  up  the  link  by  taking  a  turn  over  the  brass 
railing  running  around  the  engine,  and  when  all  was 
ready,  told  him  to  reverse  the  engine  and  give  her 
steam.  By  standing  on  the  platform  and  watching 
the  movements,  I  manipulated  the  rope,  slacking 
and  tightening  to  accommodate  the  vibration  of  the 
eccentric-rod,  and  so  allowed  the  engine  to  work 
backwards  until  we  reached  a  siding  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  off,  where  I  told  him  to  draw  his  fire  and 
bring  the  Broken  pin  and  plate  with  him,  and  I 
would  take  him  into  Santiago  to  the  shops,  where  he 
could  get  it  repaired.  He  seemed  a  little  uneasy  on 
the  hand-car  with  me,  a  stripling  whom  he  had  never 


374  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

seen  before.  At  last  lie  remarked :  (  You  seem  to 
know  something  about  a  locomotive!'  '  Yes, '  I 
replied,  4  I  served  my  time  with.  James  Edward  Mc- 
Connell,  the  inventor  of  many  improvements  in  loco- 
motive engines.'' 

Prof.  John  E.  Sweet,  formerly  of  Cornell  University, 
and  now  at  the  head  of  the  Straight  Line  Engine  Co., 
is  noted  as  one  of  the  most  fertile  of  American  mechan- 
ical engineers  in  expedients ;  in  doing  a  fifty-ton  job 
with  twenty-five-ton  appliances  and  the  like ;  but 
unfortunately  for  the  community  he  is  as  modest  as 
he  is  competent ;  and  while  most  generous  with  val- 
uable spoken  advice  in  the  hour  of  need,  it  is  hard  to 
draw  him  out  for  publication.  But  in  addition  to 
many  valuable  ( '  kinks  ' '  and  * (  wrinkles ' '  already 
illustrated  in  this  book,  he  gives  this,  much  to  our 
profit : 

"At  the  Centennial  there  was  exhibited  a  foot-lathe 
tmilt  by  the  students  at  Cornell. 

"Not  having  a  lathe  large  enough  to  either  turn  the 
pattern  or  casting,  makeshifts  were  resorted  to.  The 
casting  was  made  as  large  wheels  commonly  are,  by 
sweeping  up  the  rim  and  coring  out  the  inside.  The 
center  hole  in  the  casting  was  drilled  under  the  drill-press 
and  hand  reamed.  A  pin  to  fit  was  set  up  in  the  bed 
of  the  planing-machine,  the  tool-holder  served  to  hold 
and  feed  the  tool,  and  student  labor  rotated  the  casting ; 
the  result  was  as  good  as  any." 

Mr.  George  I,.  Fowler,  to  whom  the  atmosphere  of 
the  machine-shop  and  designing-room  has  been  famil- 
iar for  more  years  than  one  would  think  to  look  at 
him,  and  to  whom  railway  inventors  naturally  turn 
when,  to  use  a  homely  phrase,  they  have  bitten  off 
more  than  they  can  chew,  gives  an  item  of  his  earliest 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  375 

•» 

experience  in  getting  out  of  a  hole  by  a  ladder  built 
of  4 '  gray  matter. ' ' 

* 4  Once  we  were  driving  the  shop  night  and  day  to 
get  a  job  out  on  time.  I  had  for  night  service  a  smart 
engineer  whom  I  could  not  discharge  because  forsooth 
he  occupied  the  relationship  of  nephew  to  four  of  the 
directors  in  the  company.  I  left  the  shop  one  night 
about  nine  o'clock  and  my  last  words  were,  "Now 
don't  meddle  with  the  engine."  I  was  just  dropping 
off  into  a  doze  when  there  was  a  sharp  rap  on  my  door 
and  the  night  foreman  informed  me  that  the  engine 
had  broken  down.  Of  course  I  dressed  hurriedly  and 
rushed  off  to  the  shop,  which  I  reached  just  in  time  to 
head  off  the  men  who  had  washed  up  and  were 
leaving. 

4  (  The  eccentric- strap  was  broken.  At  first  visions  of 
moving  the  valve  by  hand  came  to  me,  but  my  eye 
caught  sight  of  an  old  wood  chuck.  Sending  a  man 
after  a  wood-turner,  I  hauled  over  a  lot  of  the  wood 
chucks  until  I  found  one  about  the  diameter  of  my 
eccentric.  This  I  clamped  into  position,  fastened  the 
rod  to  it,  set  the  valve  and  started  up.  Plenty  of 
grease,  a  stop  once  an  hour  to  tighten  the  strap  bolts 
and  reset  the  valve,  kept  the  shop  running  up  to  speed 
till  morning.  Meanwhile  the  wood-turner  had  made 
a  pair  of  straps  out  of  some  dry  maple.  These  were 
thoroughly  saturated  with  hot  tallow,  and  before  the 
day  shift  started  to  work  were  put  in  position  and  the 
valve  set.  By  tightening  the  bolts  slightly  once  or 
twice  a  day  and  drawing  up  the  eccentric-rod  till  the 
valve-stem  trammed  all  right,  we  used  those  wooden 
straps  till  a  pattern  could  be  made,  castings  procured 
and  new  straps  fitted.  I  think  we  lost  half  an  hour's 
time,  and  the  engineer  lost  his  job  because  he  thought 


376  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

.«r 

the  eccentric-straps  needed  tightening  jnst  a  *  leetle.'  " 

Mr.  F.  J.  Hasten,  a  veteran  mechanic,  contributes 
the  following,  in  which  the  practical  and  the  drily 
humorous  are  truly  blent : — 

4  *  While  I  was  a  journeyman  machinist  at  the  De- 
fiance Machine  Works,  a  pulley  about  five  feet  by 
twenty  inches,  with  its  shaft,  was  brought  in  for  repairs. 
The  pulley  had  been  held  on  the  shaft  by  two  feath- 
ers quartering.  (No,  they  were  not  feathers,  for  they 
had  not  been  sunken  into  the  shaft ;  but  were  projec- 
tions of  solid  metal,  and  perhaps  might  be  called  pro- 
cesses.) These  projections  had  been  produced  by 
cutting  away  the  metal  between,  on  a  planer,  and 
this  plan  was  devised  to  avoid  marring  the  shaft  by 
key  ways  or  feather-sockets.  The  shaft  and  its  pro- 
cesses were  all  right,  but  the  pulley  had  become  loose, 
and  had  been  run  so,  until  the  bridge  between  the 
two  slots  was  entirely  cut  away,  leaving  but  half  the 
bore  of  the  pulley. 

4 '  The  Turnbull  Wagon  Works  were  shut  down  and 
several  hundred  men  were  idle  from  want  of  that  pul- 
ley. It  would  take  nearly  a  week  to  make  a  new 
one,  and  the  problem  was  :  Can  the  old  pulley  be 
made  to  serve  longer,  and  be  ready  in  place  within 
eighteen  hours  ? 

4 '  A  heavy  wrought- iron  band  was  shrunk  on  each 
end  of  the  hub  ;  then  the  space  between  the  two  pro- 
jections was  considered  as  a  key  way,  a  corresponding 
recess  was  cut  in  the  hub  of  the  pulley,  and  the  key,  a 
huge  affair,  was  concaved  to  fit  the  form  of  the  shaft. 

44  It  was  not  a  handsome  job  when  done,  but  it 
served  the  purpose  well,  and  Mr.  Turnbull  was  per- 
fectly satisfied  when  he  started  his  works,  after  the 
loss  of  but  one  full  day. 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  377 

4  *  To  be  complete  in  all  its  parts,  an  emergency  job 
needs  a  dramatic  element  in  the  form  of  a  hero. 

4  *  The  true  heroism  in  this  case  was  displayed  by  Mr. 
Charles  Seymour,  who  was  then  Superintendent 
of  the  Defiance  Machine  Works.  When  the  job  was 
first  presented,  it  was  looked  over  by  Mr.  Seymour, 
the  foreman,  and  me  ;  and,  according  to  military 
precedent,  the  one  of  lowest  rank  was  asked  first 
for  his  opinion.  I  took  a  little  time  to  consider,  and 
then  said  :  4  Why  not  use  the  two  projections  on 
the  shaft  for  the  two  walls  of  a  key  way,  and  let  the 
half  bore  of  the  pulley  that  is  good  serve  to  hold  the 
pulley  true  on  the  shaft  ?  '  *  You  are  right,  Mr. 
Masten,  >  said  Mr.  Seymour,  *  in  that  way  we  shall 
get  all  there  is  of  it.  ' 

u  Here  was  true  manly  independence  and  executive 
ability  in  a  Superintendent. 

4 4  Then,  soon  after  the  work  was  started,  Mr.  Turn- 
bull,  and  the  President  of  the  Machine  Company, 
Mr.  Kettenring,  came  along  and  manifested  some 
surprise  that  it  was  thought  possible  to  use  the  old 
pulley.  *  Yes,  '  said  Mr.  Seymour,  *  Mr.  Masten 
has  suggested  an  idea  that  will  enable  us  to  make  a 
good  job  with  the  old  pulle}- !  ' 

4  4  Such  heroism  is  seldom  seen  in  Superintendents  ! '  * 

Invention  in  an  Emergency.  The  following  ac- 
count is  from  Mr.  D.  L.  Lyon,  formerly  Secretary  of 
J.  A.  Fay  &  Co.,  Cincinnati,  a  concern  that  has  done 
much  to  extend  the  fame  of  American  mechanics  for 
performing  impossibilities,  and  to  set  the  pace  to 
rivals  at  home  and  abroad  : 

4  4  Any  one  who  has  made  any  study  of  wheel 
machinery  is  aware  that  the  throat  of  a  spoke,  which 
is  the  part  above  the  tenon  that  is  driven  into  the 


378  SHOP  KINKS  AND 

hub,  was  formerly  made  on  a  single  spoke- throat- 
ing machine,  where  one  side  was  cut  out  at  a  time. 
In  large  shops  they  had  two  of  these  single  spoke- 
throaters,  one  being  right-hand  and  the  other  left-hand. 
One  operator  would  throat  the  spoke  on  one  side,  and 
if  the  works  were  very  large  there  would  be  another 
man  at  the  other  machine  and  he  would  throat  it  on 
the  opposite  side.  The  throating  had  to  be  done  very 
carefully,  because  the  corners  were  liable  to  be  broken 
off  if  the  man  fed  the  spoke  over  the  heads  with  a 
jerky  motion.  At  one  of  the  wheel-shops  here  in  the 
city  some  man  had  got  up  an  attachment  for  making 
a  peculiar  shape  of  throat  on  his  single  spoke- throat- 
ing machine.  He  called  his  machine  a  double  throat- 
er,  because  it  really  did  double  work.  That  is  to  say, 
when  any  one  required  a  throat  of  this  shape  they  were 
not  compelled  to  take  the  spoke  to  another  machine 
after  it  had  been  throated. 

u  Shortly  after  this  double  throater  had  been 
brought  out  one  of  our  customers  asked  if  we  could 
furnish  one.  We  replied  that  we  could,  and  took  his 
order  for  one  with  a  complete  outfit.  After  part  of  the 
machines  were  completed  he  inquired  how  the  new 
double  throater  was  coming  on.  We  replied  that  we 
were  making  some  progress ;  then  he  explained  that  he 
expected  it  to  throat  both  sides  of  the  spoke  at  once ;  in 
other  words,  cut  both  top  and  bottom  of  the  spoke 
at  once  as  it  was  fed  through  between  two  heads. 
We  replied  that  nothing  of  this  kind  had  been  accom- 
plished in  the  past,  and  that  we  proposed  to  furnish 
a  throater  with  an  attachment  similar  to  the  one 
made  here  in  Cincinnati  by  the  man  in  one  of  the 
wheel  shops  referred  to  above.  He  said  this  would 
not  do,  and  accordingly  he  took  one  of  our  old-style 


MACHINE  SHOP  CHAT.  379 

single  throaters.  This  remark,  however,  suggested 
to  Mr.  Doane  that  he  could  possibly  make  a  machine 
that  would  throat  both  sides  of  the  spoke  at  once. 
He  perfected  a  machine  where  the  material  was  fed 
through  by  hand  and  the  heads  were  hung  above  and 
below  the  spokes  so  that  both  throats  were  cut  on  the 
spoke  at  one  handling  and  at  one  passage.  Then  he 
thought  that  it  might  be  arranged  so  that  the  tenons 
could  be  cut  at  the  same  time  with  the  throats.  This 
was  accomplished,  and  finally  he  thought  that  we 
might  make  a  machine  that  would  cut  the  tenons, 
the  miters  for  patent  Sarven  spokes,  and  the  throats 
on  both  sides  at  once  and  use  a  power  feed.  This 
was  accomplished,  and  we  made  a  machine  which  will 
tenon,  miter  and  throat  as  high  as  15,000  spokes  a 
day,  as  compared  with  the  old-fashioned  single  throat- 
er  where  one  man  could  throat  only  3,500,  and  where  i 
separate  tenoning-machine  was  used  for  the  tenons  and 
a  separate  mitering-machine  for  the  miters." 


THE   END. 


INDEX. 


Page. 

Accurate  Drilling,  ...  93 
Adjustable  Center-gage,  . 

Cutters  for  Grooving,    .        .     *102 
Parallels  for  Planer-work,        .  *74 
Reamer  for  Brass, ...        62 
Reamer  ior  Large  Work,  .        .  *61 
Reamer  for  Small  Work,      .        *61 
vs.  Standard  Reamers,    .        .       60 
Adjustability,  Too  Much          .        .811 
Adjustment,   Fine,    for  Surface- 
gage *142 

Adjustment-nuts,  .  .  .  *235 
Adjustment  of  blide-rest,  .  .  *58 
Air-blasts,  Conduits  for  .  .  .  Isu 
Air,  Compressed,  for  Tapping  and 

Reaming  in  Boiler-shops,  .  136 
Alcohol,  Absolute  ....  ^54 
Aligning  Engine-lathes,  ...  25 
Alignment-gage  for  Lathe,  .  *24 
Alkali  Co.,  .  ....  *361 
"  All  in  One  Piece,  "  .  .  .229 
Almond.  T.  R.  .  .  .  *7S,  *108 
Ameri  can  and  Morse  Tapers,  .  .  96 
American  Practicality,  .  .  342 
Anchoring  Beams  to  Rocks,  .  *258 
Angle-gages  for  Lathe-tools,  .  .  38 

Annealing, ! 

Crane-chains 286 

Steel  in  an  Open  Fire,  .  211 
Annunciator,  Electric  .  .  .  846 
Anti-rust  Compound  for  Bright 

Work 204 

Apron-pivot  Wear,  Taking  up  .  66 
Arbor-centers,  Preserving  .  .  *23 
Arbor,  Circular-saw,  Bearings  for  329 

Nut *237 

Arbors,  Drift  for  .  .  .  .  *263 
Armstrong  Tool-holder,  .  .  *47 
Arrangement,  Common  Sense  in  .  *272 
Atlantic  Works,  .  .  .  *82,  *89 
Atmospheric  Pressure,  .  .  257 
Axial  Reaming,  ,  *)10 

Axle,    Key-seating    while    in    the 
Lathe 53 

Babbitted  Holes,  Distance  between  157 
Backing  off  Milling-cutters,  .  .  *26 
Bad  Work,  Loss  in  Correcting  .  251 

Baggy  Cores 195 

Balance,  Running    ....  *305 
Standing       ....      *305 


Paee. 

Balancing  Pulleys  ....  *305 
Baldwin  Locomotive  Works, 

64, 135, 136,*138,  179,  278,  279 
Ball-and-socket  Bearings,      .        .     332 

Ball  Bearings 331 

Ball-handle  Drilling-fixture  .     *86 

Balls,  Iron  or  Steel,  Grinding   .         121 

Solid  Iron,  Casting          .        .      199 

Truly  Round  .  .  .  .122 
Bar,  Boring 82 

Caliper, 143 

Bars,  Steel,  Cutting,     .        .        .349 

Turning  Large  *34 

Barrels,  Sweeping  up  Loam  Cores 

on 193 

Bath,  Hardening  ....  205 
Beads,  Forming  in  Molds,  .  *188 
Beam  Calipers,  ....  144 

Hodgkinson  .  .  .  *234 
Beams, 292 

Anchoring  to  Rocks,  .  *258 
Bearings,  Ball-an<1-socket  .  .  832 

Ball 331 

Cast-iron 380 

Cool-running         .        .        .         329 

for  Circular-saw  Arbor,  .        .     329 

of  Hoisting-blocks,  .  .  276 
Bearing-metals,  ....  329 
Bearings,  Self-oiling  ...  329 

Troublesome  ....  329 
Bell  Chucks,  ....  *23 

Belt-handler *313 

Belt-shifter.  ....       *812 

Belt-width  Needed,  .  .  .252 
Belts,  Planer,  Why  they  do  not 

last  long *312 

Bement  &  Miles,  .  .  94, 140,  265 
Bending  Copper  Pipes,  .  .  134 

Cranks  on  Shafts,  .  .  .151 
Bettering  Calipers,  .  .  .  145 

Bevel  Filing *167 

Bilgram,  Hugo,  .  08,  *110,  J66,  *322 
Bill  Hitch,  .  .  .  .  .  *289 
Bit,  Rose,  for  Reaming  in  Two 

Metals  at  once,  *80 

Black-lead  (see  Graphite). 
Blackwall  Hitch,   ....     *287 
Blanks,  Spur-gear     ...  821 

Tap,  Over-hard  ...  209 
Blazing  off  Springs,  .  .  .  207 
Blocks,  Bearings  of  ...  276 


382 


INDEX. 


Page. 

Block,  Driving         .        .        .  *262 

Blocks,  Erection  ....  *265 
Blower,  Simple  Rotary  .  .  *35T 
Blue-prints  of  Solid  Objects,  .  226 
Bluing  Steel  without  Heat,  .  210 
Bobs,  Plumb  ....  *259.  302 
Boiler-calking  Tools,  .  .  *137 
Boiler-heads,  Flanged  .  .  .136 
Bollinckx,  A.  .  .  146,  182,193,  265 
Bolts.  Brass,  Turning  .  .  .43 
Clamp,  Breaking  of  .  .  *37 
Boring  and  Reaming  in  Two  Metals 

.         *30 
.      *4T 


at  once,          .. 
Boring  and  Threading, 


Boring-bar,          .....    82 

for  Drill-press,         .        .        .      *8l 
Standards,    .....    83 

"  Botchman's    Favorite  "    Lathe 

and  Work-centers,          .        .       *20 
Boxes,  Core        ....         *184 

Shafting,  Chucking        .        .         39 
Boring  Cannons,     ....       78 

Curved  Nozzles  .....    46 

Cylinders,         ....        78 

Holes  in  a  Cored  Casting,   .         *78 
Holes  in  the  Lathe,  ...      58 
Long  Deep  Holes,       .        .        .80 
Tapers  ......     *55 

Tapers  in  the  La  the,  .        .          *28 

Tapers,  Slide-rest  for     .        .       *56 

Brace  Principle,         .        .        .        .230 

Bracket,  Scaffold,  Ladder        .          *267 

Brake,  Combined  Belt-Shifter  and  *314 

Brass,  Adjustable  Reamer  for,        .     62 

Bolts,  Turning       ...         43 

Cups,  Covers  on         ...    239 

Brasses,  Driving-box  .        .         260 

Brass,  Reaming       ....     *62 

Work,  Spring  Lathe-chuck  for  *29 
Brazing  Cast-iron,      .        .        .          350 
Breakages  of  Cast-iron  Columns,  .    233 
Break-downs  .....          373 

Breaking  of  Clamp-bolts,      .        .       *37 
off,  Nicking  for   .        .        .        .56 

Brick-machines,      ....      366 

Briggs,  Robert  .        .        .        .    39 

Bright  Work,  Anti-rust  Compound 
for          ......  204 

Brigley,  John  .....    *H8 

Broach  for  Cast-iron,         .        .        *149 
Broaching,         ....  *148,  149 

Brown,  H.  S.  .        .  .      .        .      *51  *235 

^.^/wn  &  Porter,        .        .        .         *361 

Brown  &  Sharpe,     *9,  36,  47,  *98,  104, 

156,  215,  220,249,  322,  *343,  345,  *855 

Buckets,  Fire        ....         865 

Buildings,  Floor-timbers  in  High  .  292 
Bunter-chucks  for  Planers,  .        .      *68 
Bunter-screw,    .....  *69 

Bureau  of  Weights  and  Measures,     257 
Burning  together  a  Core-tube,   .        192 


Paee. 

Bursting  Emery-wheels,  .        .        .117 
Bushings,  Connecting-rod        .        .  260 

Punch 125 

Busts,  Enlarging  Patterns  for        .  *172 

Calculating  Adjustment  of  Slide- 
rests *55 

Horse-power,      ....    253 

Caliper,  Bar          .        .        .        .143 

Beam   ......  *144 

Calipers,  Bettering       ...        145 
Caliper-joint,  Compressing     .        .    146 

Calking  Boilers *137 

Cambered  Floors,     ....  *294 

Can,  Shellac *175 

Cannons,  Boring       .  78 

Cans,  Oil 838 

Canvas  Suction-hose,       .        .        .    341 
Car-shops,  New  Wrinkles  in       .        29fr 

Card,  Erasing *212 

Care  of  Surface-plates,        .        .        141 

Cast-iron  Bearings,  ....    330 

Beam-sections,        .        .        .      *233 

Brazing 350 

Broach  for          ....  *149 

Lathe-tools,    ....         42 

Plates,  Planing  ..       .        .72 

Casting,  Boring  Holes  in  a  Cored      *78 

Casting  Flange-pipe,       .        .        .201 

Screw-threads,       ...        1ST 

Solid  Iron  Balls,        .        .        .199 

Straight-armed  Pulleys,        .        187 

Castings,  Chilled      ....    201 

Feeding 199 

Good,  How  to  Get  .  .  .  198 
Handling  Large  .  -  .  *277 
Malleable  .  .  .  .  .-210- 
Ring,  Cooling-strains  on  .  199 

Weight  of 199 

Ceiling,  Pattern-room  ...        291 
Center-cutting  Shears,     .        .        .  *187 
Center-drilling  Device,       .        .        *40 
Center-gages- (see  Cages,  Center). 
Center-holes  for  Lathe-work,          .      49 

Center-reamers *41 

Centering  and  Squaring  up  Connect- 
ing-rods, .  .  .  .  *50> 
Centering-device,  ....  *42 
Centering-drill,  ....  *3£ 
Centering  Lathe-work,  .  *19,  *49,  52 
Centering-punch,  .  .  .  *126 

Centers,  Arbor *23 

Importance  of  ...  23ft 
Lathe,  .  .  .  "  .  *16,  *20 
Lathe,  for  Coned  or  Tubular 

Work *1& 

Lathe,  for  Cutting  Off  .    *1& 

Lathe,  Testing    .        .        .        .23 

Milling, *16 

Work *20 

Chains,  Crane,  Annealing  .        .        286 


INDEX. 


383 


Chains,  Hoisting,      .        . 

Chasers, 

Chilled  Castings,      .       . 

Rolls,  Turning       .        . 
Chimney-climbing,     .        . 

with  Ladders,      .       . 
Chipping  out  Dash-pots, 
Choice  of  Molding-loam  . 
Chuck,  Lathe,  Handy  .. 

Spring,  for  Lathe      . 

Spur,  for  Wood-turning 
Chucking  Shafting-boxes, 
Chucks,  Bell 

Bunter 

Drill 

Planer 

Shaper 


Page. 
.276 
*44 
.201 
*46 
*361 
.363 
.  871 
.    189 
25 

.    *29 
*180 
.      89 
*23 
*68 
85 
68 
68 

Circular-saw  Arbor,  Bearings  for     829 
Clamp  Bolts,  Breaking  of  .        .        *37 
Clamp,  Sizing    .....    168 

Clamp-dog,  Two-part  .        .        .        *31 
Clamping  Flanges    ....    *87 

Clamps,  Finishing        .        .        .      *168 
Clearance  of  Twist  Drills,       .        .     93 
Clements,  Frank  *82 

Cleopatra's  Needle,          .        .        .278 
Cleveland  Twist  Drill  Co.,          .         93 
Climbing  Chimney  with  Ladders,    *363 
Clove  Hitch  ......  *283 

Clutch  .......        250 

Coal  for  Facing         .        .        .        .190 

Coarse-tooth  Cutters,  ...       105 
Coast  Survey    .....    257 

Cocking  Wing-flanges,      .        .         850 
Cock-work,  Lathe-driver  for      .        *33 
Collapsing  Taps,       .        .       *128,  *129 
Collar      Gages,      Mandrel      for 

Grinding       ....        *120 

Colors  of  Patterns  and  Core-prints    170 
Columns,  Cast-iron  Breakage  of     .    233 
Colvin,  F.  H  .....        154 

Combined  Belt-shifter  and  Brake  *314 

Common-sense  in  Arrangement,     *272 

Loose  Pulley,    ....  *309 

Commutators,  Truing          .        .        160 
Compound  Drill  and  Counter-sink,   *41 
Compressed  Air  for  Tapping  and 

Reaming  in  Boiler-shops,         .    136 
Compressing  Caliper-joint,         .        146 
Compression-hubs,   ....    152 

Conduits  for  Air-blasts,       .        .        180 
Cone-center  Pivots,         .        .        .289 
Coned  or  Tubular  Work,    . 
Connecting-rod  Bushings,      ...    260 
Connecting  rods,  Centering  and 

Squaring  up    ....      *50 

Connecting-rods,  Planing  ,  .  70 
Consumption  of  supplies  .  248 
Converse,  J.  S.  -  .  .  *168 

Convenient  Lathe-driver  for  Core- 
pipe  and  Cock-work,      .      .     *33 


Page. 

Corliss-engine  Cylinders,  .  .  265 
Cool-running  Bearings,  .  .  329 
Cooling-strains  on  Ring  Castings,  199 
Cool  Water  for  Shops,  .  .  .298 

Core-boxes, *184 

Hardening 195 

Core-oven  Cars,     ....      *197 

Doors,  .        .        .        .*196 

Shelves,  ....        197 

Core-pipe,  Lathe-driver  for    .        .    *33 

Core-prints,  Colors  of  .        .        .        170 

Core-sand, 198 

Core-tube,  Burning  together  .  192 
Core-tubes,  Straightening  .  .  192 
Core-wheels,  Emery-wheel  Holder 

for *118 

Cores,  Halves        ....        192 
Loam,  Sweeping  up  on  Barrels    193 

Baggy 195 

Core-oven       ....      *197 
Patterns  for      ....    *199 

Venting 190 

Straw  for 191 

Tortuous,  Removing  .  .  193 
Coring  Holes  in  Lugs,  .  .  .  191 
"  Cornell "  Solid  Wrench,  .  .  *158 
Corrugated  Rolls,  .  .  .  .122 
Cost  and  Ten  Per  Cent.  .  •  .  244 

of  Product 243 

Cotton-seed    Oil   for    Blazing   off 

Springs, 207 

Cotters,  Split 152 

Couch,  A.  B.  ,     *213 

Counterbalancing    Shafts    while 

Turning  them    ....     55 

Countersink  and  Drill,         .        .        *41 

Couplings,  Hose       .        .  .   187 

Hose,  False-back  ...        182 

Shaft,  Barbarous       .        .        .    304 

Covers  on  Brass  Cups,         .       .       239 

Crane-motors, 279 

Cranes  and  their  Kin,          .        .        278 

Electric 278 

Elevating  Weights  beyond 

their  Capacity,         .        .        .872 

Temporary     ....      *280 

Wrinkle  about  ....  *279 

Crank-pin  for  Center-crank  Engine  240 

Cranks,  Bending  on  Shafts         .        151 

Cresson,  G.  V 197 

Crosby,  A.  L *42 

Crossheads,  Removing  Piston-rods 

from 261 

Crucibles,  Granhite  ...  189 
Cube,  Turning  in  a  Lathe  .  .  57 
Cup-leathers,  ....  341 
Curve-joining,  ....  *224 
Curves  of  Long  Radius,  .  .  .  *221 
Cut  vs.  Cast  Gears,  ....  316 
vs.  Wire  Nails,  ...  242 
Cutting  Gear-wheels  on  a  Blotter,  76 


INDEX. 


Cutters,  Coarse- tooth 

for  Grooving  .       .       . 
Gear    .        .        .  . 

Cutters,  Hardening 
Milling        . 
Milling,  Backing  off      . 
Milling,  for  Heavy  Work 
Milling,  Holding   . 


Pare. 

.    105 


*102 
.    318 
208 
.    10T 
*26 
.    104 
109 

Milling,  Keeping  Sharp  .        .    112 
Milling,  Speed  of  .       .       .        1U 
Milling,  Spiral  Grooves  in       .  *106 
of  Nut-milling  Machines,  Gage 
for        -        ....        113 

Twist 17T 

Cuts,  to  Mill  in    the    Rim    of   a 

Wheel, 109 

Cutting    Internal    Gears    on    a 

Planer 76 

off,  Lathe-center  for         .        .    *18 

off  Small  Pieces,  .         .        .      *125 

Rails  to  Length,        .        .        .124 

Small  Diameter  Steel,  .        .        124 

Cutting-speed  on  Lathes,        .        .       9 

of  Lathe-tools         ...          50 

Cutting  Steel  Bars,  .        .        .        .849 

Teeth  in  Large  Quadrants, .        *97 

Threads  in  a  Lathe,.     .        .        131 

Cylinder-head  Patterns,  Lugs  for      171 

Cylinder-jackets,  Making        .       .    181 

Cylinders,  Boring        ...         78 

Corliss-engine    ....    265 

Cylindrical  Nuts  ....        234 

Dash-pots,  Chipping  out  .  .  871 
Deforming  Dies  in  Hardening,  .  208 
Defiance  Machine  Works,  .  .  376 
Delamater  Works,  .  51 ,  *126,  *235 
Depth-gage  for  Wood-turning,  .  179 
Design,  Simplicity  of  .  .  .  227 
Engine,  Simplicity  in  .  .  228 
Designing  "Wrong  End  to,"  .  230 
Diametral  vs.  Circular  Pitch  of 

Gears, 815 

Dickson  Mfg.  Co 41 

Die-sinking,         ....         851 

Dies,  Deforming  in  Hardening       .    208 
for  Screw-threading      .        .       131 
Pipe      .        .       .       .       .        .131 

Differential-screw  Lock-nut,       .      *238 
Dimensions  of  Gear-teeth,       .       .   817 
Direct  Separator  Co.,  *28 

Discharge,  Water     .        .       .       .252 

Disconnecting  a  Piston-rod,        .        261 
Dish-faced  Rose  Bit  for  Reaming 

True  Holes  in  Two  Metals,  .  *80 
Disposing  of  Turnings,  .  .  64 
Distance  between  Babbitted  Holes,  157 
Distinguishing  Jigs  and  Special 

Tools 158 

Doane,  W.  H 877 

Doctor,  Two-part         ...         85 


Dogs,  Scaffold  .... 

Pag*. 
*267 

Doors,  Core-oven  .... 
Draftsmen.  Handy  for 
Draftsmen's  Templates, 
Drawings  for  the  Shop,    . 
Large,  Holding  on  a  Board  . 
Keep  Track  of    . 
Small,  Section-lining     . 

*196 
.*212 
211 
.*217 
215 
.    218 
*214 

Drift  for  Arbors, 

Drill  and  Countersink,         .        .       *41 

Centering    .....   *89 

Drill-chucks  ......          85 

Drill-press  Arm,  Increasing  Span  of  *88 

Drill-press,  Boring-bar  Guide-box  for  *81 

Facing  Large  Work  in      .        .   *86 

Heads  ......         84 

Drill  Speed  ......      98 

Starting   .....       *89 

Twist,  for  Sheet  Brass      .        .   *90 
Drilling,  Accurate        ...          98 
Drilling-device  .....        '40 

for  Handles  *87 

Drilling  Fixture,  Ball-handle  .        .   *86 
Holes   in    Water-mains    while 
they  are  full  .....  *95 

in  Glass,  .....         91 

Jigs,     ......    158 

Long  Holes,    ....         92 

Square  Holes,     ....     96 

Drills,  Electric,  in  Boiler-work  .        134 
for  Working  Hardened  Steel   .     91 
Hardening       ....        206 

Long    ......     94 

Long,  Oiling  ....         94 

Rock          .....      867 

92 

.         98 
Driver,  Lathe    .....   *82 

Drivers  for  Lathe,  *30 

Locomotive,  Equalizing    .        .    241 

Driving-block  .....      *262 

Driving-box  Brasses,       .       .        .   260 
Driving  Keys,        ....        150 

Driving-pins,  Securing     .        .        .  *31 
Driving  Work  held  in  Lathe-bear- 

ings ......         82 

Drop-forging,  ....    851 

Duplicates,  Ordering  ...        848 
Dust-flues,         .....    119 

Dynamo,        .....       856 

Eccentric-strap,  Broken         .  .   875 

Economy,  False    ....  161 

Electric  Annunciator,      .        .  .845 

Cranes,    .....  278 

Drills  in  Boiler-work,        .  .    184 

Electromotive  Force,   .        .        .  856 

Elevator-stop,    .....   865 

Emergencies,         ....  870 

Emergency,  Invention  in  an  .  .    877 


Splicing 

Twist,  Clearance  of 


INDEX. 


385 


Page. 

Emery-wheel    Holders     for    Car- 
wheels,     *118 

Emery-wheels,  20T 

Bursting       .         •  .        .    liT 

Making 119 

vs.  Grindstones,         .        .        .    116 
Engine-lathes,  Aligning       .        .         25 
Engines,  Steam  (see  Steam-engines). 
English,  H.  ....     46 

Enlarging  Patterns  for  Busts  &c  ,*172 
Square  Holes  in  Cast-iron,  .  *149 
Equal  Concentric  Rings,  .  .  *224 
Equalizing  Locomotive  Drivers,  .  241 
Erasing-card.  .  .  '  .  .  *212 

Erecting   a  Perpendicular  with  a 

Two-foot  Rule,        .        .        .225 
v.rection-blocks  .        .        .      *2ti5 

Etching  on  Steel 349 

Eye,  Splicing  Wire  Rope  for  an .     *289 

Face-plates,  Securing  Driving-pins 

to       ....                .    *31 
facing   Large   Work  in  the  Drill- 
press,        *86 

facing-lathes,  ....  13 
Facing-tools  for  Worms,  .  .119 
False-back  Hose-coupling,  .  .  182 
False  Economy  in  File-buying  .  161 
Teeth  for  Spur  Gears,  .  .  324 
Fastening  Hoisting-ropes  to  Hooks,  *'2ST 
Fay  &  Co.,  .  ...  377 

Feed-gage  for  Lathes,  .  .  89 
Feed-screws  of  Lathes,  ...  12 

Feed,  Sight 340 

Feeding  Castings,     .        .  .    199 

Heavy  Planks  to  a  Saw,    .          176 
Ferracute  Machine  Works. 

13,  158,  170,-178,  211,  213,  215 
Fiber,  Vulcanized,  Turning  .  .  53 
Figure,  Human,  Templates  of  .  881 

Figurer,  The 252 

Figuring  Gear-teeth,   . 

File-buying 161 

File-sharpening,    .        .       .        .        162 
Sand-blast  for     .        .        .        .162 

File-tangs 166 

Files,  Life  of 165 

Pinning 160 

Ruining 160 

Sectional          .        .        .        .        168 

Filing,  Bevel *167 

Fillet,  Much-neglected.  .  .  839 
Filleting,  .  ...  178 
Filling  Drafting-pens  ...  212 
Finding  the  Center  of  Gravity,  .  257 
Fine  Adjustment  for  Surface-gage,  *142 
Fine  Taper  Reaming,  ...  60 
Finish  vs.  Material,  ...  168 
Finishing-clamps,  ....  *168 
Finishing  Leaf  Springs  by  Grinding,  123 
Fire-buckets 35 


Page. 
Fire-engine  Test,         ...         46 

Fires.  Hollow 1S1 

Fits,  Hydraulic  ....  265 
Fits.  Scraping,  for  Steam-engine 

Valves  ....       348 

Flange-joints.  Grinding  .  .  .350 
Flanges,  Clamping  .  .  .  *8T 
Flanging  Boiler-heads,  .  .  .136 

Fletcher*  Co 371 

Flexible  Metal  Oil-tube,  .  .  .  *10» 
Floors  and  Joists,  .  .  .  293 

Cambered *294 

Light         .  ...        295 

Shop 295 

Strengthening  .  .  .  *294 
Flute-spacing,  .  .  .  .  .111 
Flutes.  Spiral,  in  Milling-cutters  *106 
Fluting  or  Grooving  Taps,  .  .  130 
Fluting  with  the  Lathe,  .  .  50 
Fly-wheel  Molding,  .  .  . .  *184 

Fly-wheels *169 

Foot-steps,  Turbine,  to  Prevent 

from  Welding  .       .        336 

Forming  Beads  in  Molds,  .  .  *18S 
Foundations  for  Turbines,  .  .  336 

Fowler,  Geo.  L 874 

Freeland  Works, .  .  .  .35,  *36 
Friction  I  ess  Taps,  ....  180 

Fudging, 169 

Furnace,  Portable  Brass         .        .19* 

Gage,  Alignment,  for  Lathe     .        *24 

Gage-blocks,  Planer         ...     75 

Gage  Depth,  for  Wood-turning     .    179 

Feed,  for  Lathe         ...      39 

for    Cutters    of    Nut-milling 

Machines 118 

for  Turning  Tapers,          .        .   *42 

Limit 156 

Limit,  Harrington's  .  .  *15T 
Shrinkage  ....  *263 
Gages,  Angle,  for  Lathe-tools,  .  38 
Center,  Adjustable  .  .  *159 
Center,  Wrinkle  in  .  .  .  *159 
Collar,  Mandrel  for  Grinding  *120 

Ring 209 

Screw-thread      .       .       .       .  *148 

Standard  Grinding        .        .        120 

Gaining  with  a  Saw,        .       .        .    124 

Gasket-cutting,      ....        351 

Gear-cutters, 3i& 

Gear,  Spur,  Blanks  for  .  .  321 
Gear-tooth,  Outlines  for  General 

Adoption          ....    319 

Scriber *2ia 

Gear-wheels.  Cutting  on  a  Slotter       76 

Gearing,  Rules  for  Laying  out       .   328 

Transmission  by     .        .        .        315 

Gears,  Cast-iron,  Grinding  together  825- 

Cut  vs.  Cast         ....   816 

Diametral  vs.  Circular  Pitch  of  815 


386 


INDEX. 


Page. 

Gears,  Internal,  Cutting  on  a  Planer   76 
Overloaded     .        .        .        .        8lT 

Rawhide 826 

Special *3l9 

Spur,  False  Teeth  for  .  .  324 
General  Dimension  Sheet,  .  .  231 
Glass,  Drilling  in  .  .  .  .91 
Globe-valves  in  Pipe-lines  .  .  183 
Good  Alignment-gage  for  a  Lathe  *24 
Graphical  Proportion,  .  .  .  *231 
Graphite,  .  .  .261,281,286,363 
Black-lead  ....  341 

Crucibles 189 

Gravity,  Finding  the  Center  of  .  257 
Green-sand  Molds,  Venting  .  189 

Grinder,  Lathe  vs 115 

Grinding  Cast-iron  Gears  together   325 

Flange-joints,         ...        350 

Iron  or  Steel  Balls      .        .        .121 

Lathe-center  Spindles  .       .        *18 

Grinding-mandrel  for  Collar  Gages,  *12 

for  Plug  Gages,          .          .        *120 

Grinding  Standard  Gages,      .        .  *120 

Tools  without    Changing  their 

Shape, *119 

Grindstone, 114 

Grindstones,  Emery-wheels  vs.  .  116 
Gripping  T  Square,  .  .  .  213 
Grooving,  Adjustable  Cutter  for  .  *102 

Taps, 130 

Griison,  H 201 

Guide-box  for  Boring-bar  for  Drill- 
press,        *81 

Gum  Joints  (see  Joints,  Rubber). 
Gun-metal,  .       .        .        .324 


Mack-saws, 

Hack-saw  Lubricant, 
Halved  Cores,           . 
Hammer,  Interchangeable 
Hammers,  Steam,  as  Steam-con- 
sumers      

Hammering  Pentagons, 
Hancock  Inspirator  Co.,      *29,  60, 

Hand-holes 

Handle-drilling  Device, 
Handling  Large  Castings, 
Handy  Eccentric  Vise, 

for  Draftsmen, 

Lathe-chuck, 

Triangles, 


Hanging  up  a  Clutch  Pulley,    . 
Hardening  around  a  Hole,     . 

Cutters,    . 

Drills 

in  Mercury,    .... 

Small  Saws 

Tool  Steel, 
Hardening-bath,      . 
Hardness  vs.  Toughness,   . 
Harrington  &  Sons,       .        .   *6S, 


124 
125 
192 
154 

179 

181 

*129 

84 

*87 
*277 

*34 

*212 

25 

215 
*308 


91 
208 
207 
205 
204 
*119 


Harrington's  Limit-gage,  .  .  *15T 
Hartford  Steam  Engineering  Co.,  *263 
Hay  and  Straw  for  Cores,  .  191 

Heating-bath,  .        .        .        .205 

Henderson,  W.  M.  .  .  .  372 
Hewes  &  Phillips,  ....  67 

Hitch,  Bill *289 

Blackwall  ....  *287 

Clove  .      *283 

Timber  ....  *283 

Hodgkinson  Beam,    .        .        .        *234 

Hoe  &  Co., 72 

"  Hog-cuts"  on  Long  Shafts,  .  38 

Hoisting-chains,       .  .        .276 

Hoisting-ropes,        .        .        .     276, 286 
Hoisting,  Temporary         .        .        *283 
Holding    Large   Drawings   on   a 

Board,         ....          215 

Milling-cutters  10* 

Reamers  while  Marking  them,    *68 

Things  in  Place,       .  .     240 

Work  on  a  Planer-bed    .       .         66 

Hole,  Hardening  around  a    .        .    209 

Holes,  Boring  Long  Deep  .        .         80 

Boring  in  a  Cored  Casting        .  *78 

Coring  in  Lugs      ...        191 

Reamed    "Just    a    Trifle    too 

Small,"      .        .        .        .      .  .     68 

Square,  Drilling   ...         96 
Hollow  Fires,  .        .        .        .181 

Planing,          ....          71 

Hooks,    Fastening   Hoisting-ropes 

to *287 

Horse-power,  Calculating      .        .    253 

of  Steam-engines,         .        .         254 

Rules  for  ....    264 

Hose,  Canvas  Suction    .        .        .841 

Hose-couplings,  .        .        .        187 

False-back         .        .        .        .182 

Howard,  Geo.  C.         ...         83 

Hubs,  Compression         •        .        .152 

Hydraulic  Fits,    ....        265 

Ram,  .    261 

Hyperbolograph,         ...        214 

Importance  of  Centers,       .        .  280 
Inch,  Thousandth  of  an  .        .  .    147 
Increasing    the  Span    of   a  Drill- 
Press  Arm,  *88 
Industrial   Works  (see  Bement  & 

Miles  Co.) 

Ingenuity  vs.  Common-sense,    .  280 

Inserted-tooth  Milling-cutters,  .    *98 

Inspector's  Truck.        .        .       .  *343 

Interchangeable  Hammer,      .  .    154 

Pulley-molding,     .        .        .  *183 

Invention  in  an  Emergency,  .  .   877 

Iron,  White  or  Silver,  To  Soften  211 

Iron-work,  Painting         .       .  .  204 

Jackets,  Cylinder,  Making     .       .    181 


INDEX. 


387 


Jack-shaft  Stands, 

Jigs.  Distinguishing     .        . 

Drilling 

Joining  Curves,    .        .        . 
Joint,  Caliper,  Compressing 

Riveted   .... 
Joints,  Lead-pipe 

Rubber    .... 
Joists  and  Floors, 

•Lee 


158 
158 
222 
146 
136 
*183 
853 
293 


eping  Account  of  Shop  Work, 
Milling-cutters  Sharp, 


247 
112 

Track  of  Drawings,"  .  .  218 
Keying  Pulleys  on  shafts,  .  .  *310 
Key-seating  a  Shaft  or  Axle  while 

in  the  Lathe,       ...          53 

Key-tapers  and  Sizes,       .        .        .    151 

Keys,  Driving       ....        150 

Milling  out         ....  *149 

Projecting       ....        150 

Split 150 

Removing 151 

Ladder  Scaffold-bracket,  .  .  *267 
Ladders,  Climbing  Chimney  with  *363 
Lane  &  Bodley  Co.,  .  .  .  39,  184 
Language  of  Machines,  ...  368 

Lap-plates 8JJ 

Laps *121 

Lashing  Derrick-timbers,  .  .  *281 
.Lathe  as  Rotary  Shears, ...  58 
Boring  Tapers  in  .  .  .  *23 
Cutting-speed  ....  9 
Cutting  Threads  in  .  .  131 
Feed-gage  for  .  .  .  .39 
Fluting  with  ....  50 

Poor  Old 9 

Setting  Parallel     ...         26 

Turning  a  Cube  in     .        .        .57 

Various  Uses  of     ...          58 

vs.  Grinder,        .       .       .       .115 

Work-drivers  for  *30 

l^ithe-bearings,  Driving  Work  in  .     32 

Lathe-center  for  Coned  or  Tubular 

Work *18 

for  Cutting  off *18 

for  Heavy  Work,          .         *16,  *17 

Grinder *14 

Spindles *13 

Lathe-centers *16,  *20 


Testing, 
ick, 


•25 


Lathe-chuck,  Handy    . 

Spring, *2» 

Lathe-driver *32 

for  Core-pipe  and  Cock  Work,  *33 
Lathe  Feed-screws, 

Lathe-speed  Regulator,  .        .        .  *9 
Lathe-springs,  Finishing  by  Grind- 
ing           128 

Lathe-tools,  Angle-gage  for   .        .  88 

Cast-iron         ....  42 


Page. 

Lathe- tools,  Cutting-speed  of  .  50 
Lathe-work,  Center-holes  for  .  *49 

Centering    .        .        .        *19, 50, 52 
Lathes,  Engine,  Aligning        .        .     25 

Facing 18 

Tool-post  Slots  for     .        .        .      39 
Laying  off  Gear-teeth  for  a  Sprock- 
et-wheel,   320 

Leading  Shafts  ....  298 
Lead-pipe  Joints,  ....  *133 
Lead-screw  for  Pit  Planer  .  .  66 

Lubrication,        ....      13 

Wear 12 

Leathers,  Cup 841 

Black-lead  in          ...        841 
Leland  and  Faulconer  Co.      .        .    *20 

Life  of  Files 165 

Light  Floors 295 

Lighting,  Shop  .  .  .  296, 297 
Limit-gage, 156 

for  Worm-threads,     .  *157 


form-threads, 
Lines,  Plumb-bob 


250 


Lining  up  Shafting,         .        .        .  *800 

Lists,  Tool 843 

Loam    Cores,    Sweeping    up     on 

Barrels 198 

Lock  Nuts, 150 

Lockwood  Mfg.  Co.,  .  .  .  *19 
Locomotive,  Reversing  when 

Broken  Down,      .        .        .373 
London,  Berry  &  Orton,     .        .        156 

Long  Drills 94 

Loose  Pulleys,  Craft's,  .  .  *309 
Loss  in  Correcting  Bad  Work,  .  251 
Lubricant  for  Hack-saws,  .  .  125 

for  Milling-cutters,    .  .     109 

Lubricants, 839 

Lubrication, 887 

for  Lead-screws,  ...  18 
Lubricator  for  Turret-tool,  .  .  64 
Lugs,  Coring  Holes  in  .  .  191 

for  Cylinder-head  Patterns,  .  171 
Lyons,  D.  L.,  .  .  .  .  877 

Machine-beds,  Setting  on  Planers,  *69 
Machine-steel  Milling-cutters,  .  104 
Machine,  Tenoning  Spoke-throat- 

ers, 377 

Machines,  Brick    ....        366 
Language  of      .        .        .        .368 

Special 357 

Machinery,  Wheel  .  .  .  .377 
Making  an  Emery-wheel,  .  .  119 

Malleable  Castings 210 

Mandrel  for  Grinding  Collar  Gages, *120 

Grinding,  for  Plug  Gages,      .  *120 

Man-holes,  ....          8^ 

Marking  Steel  Tools,       ...    35* 

Mast  en,  F.  J 876 

Material,  Finish  vs.         ...    188 


INDEX. 


Page. 

Measuring  Pulley  and  Shaft  Diam- 
eters  156 

Measuring  Screw-threads,  .  .  *147 
Meatyard,  E.  B.  •  .  .  .  *136 
Melting-Points  of  the  Metals,  .  200 
Mennig  &  Co.,  ....  66 
Mercury,  Hardening  in  ...  91 
Weight  of  ....  257 
Metal-finishing  Machine  Wanted,  358 

Metal,  Gun 324 

Metals,  Bearing 829 

Melting-points  of  the  .         200 

Metric-pitch  Screws,  .        .         57 

Metric  System 147 

Miller,  F.  J.        .  ...  *819 

Milling-center,  ....  *16 
Milling  Cuts  in  the  Rim  of  a  Wheel,  109 

Milling-cutters 107 

Backing  off *26 

for  Heavy  Work,  ...  104 
Holding,  ....  109 
Inserted-tooth,  .  .  .  *98 

Keeping  Sharp,  .  .  .112 
Lubricant  for,  ...  109 
Machine-steel,  .  .  .  .104 
Speed  of,  ....  112 

Milling-machines 118 

Oil  on, *107 

Milling  Out  Keys,    .        .        .        .  *149 

Spirals, Ill 

Milling  vs.  Planing,  .  .  .110 
Molding  Fly-wheels,  .  .  .  *184 
Molding-loam.  Choice  of  .  .  189 
Molding,  Pulleys,  .  .  .  *188 
Molding-sand,  Renewing  .  .  190 
Molds,  Forming  Beads  in  .  .  *188 
Green-sand,  Venting  .  .189 
Monitor-lathe  Tools.  ...  47 
Monkey-wrench  as  a  Pipe-wrench,  *132 
as  a  Tube-cutter,  .  .  .153 
Monkey-wrenches  and  Pipe-tongs,  132 
Morse  &  American  Tapers.  .  96 
Morris,  Tasker  &  Co.,  .  .  89 

Motors,  Crane  .        .        .        .279 

Kails,  Cut  vs.  Wire  .  .  .242 
Needle,  Cleopatra's  ...  .  278 
Newton,  C.  C,  .  .  -*125,  365 

Machine-tool  Works,  .  104,  *106 
Nicking  Stock  for  Breaking  off,  .  56 
Nordyke  &  Marmon  Co.,  .  .  816 
Nozzles,  Curved,  Boring,  .  .  46 

Nut-arbor, *237 

Nut,  Lock,  Differential  Screw,         *288 

Stud *235 

Nut-milling  Machines,  Gage  for  .  113 
Nuts,  Adjustment,  .  .  .  235 

Cylindrical 234 

Lock, 150 

Nuts,    to     Keep    from     Working 

Loose *422 


Object,  Showing  all  Sides  of  an     .  218 
Oil-cans,  .        .        .        .        .        .888 

Oil,  Floods  of, 840 

on  Milling-machines,  .  .  107 
Oil-saving, 837 

on  Railways  ....  837 

Oil-tanks, 840 

Oil-tube,  Flexible  Metal,  .  .  *108 
Oiling  Long  Drills,  .  .  .  .  94 

Pins  from  One  End  Only,  *889 
Open-side  Planers, ....  65 
Ordering  Duplicates,  .  .  .848 
Oven,  Core,  Cars  for  .  .  .  *197 

Core,  Shelves  for,  .  .  .197 
Over-accuracy,  ...»  77 
Over-hard  Tap-blanks,  .  .  .209 
Overloaded  Gears,  .  .  .817 
Overtime  Work 250 

I»acking  up  Work  on  a  Planer,  .  *78 

Pads,  Sketching,        .        .        .  .  216 

Paint  for  Iron  Stacks,    ...  204 

Painting  Iron  Stacks,        .        .  *202 


Iron-work, 


204 


Parallels,  Adjustable,  for   Planer- 
work,    *74 

Pattern-finishing,  ....  *17l 
Pattern-maker's  Device,  .  .  *174 
Pattern-making,  .  .  .  .178 
Pattern-room  Ceiling,  .  .  .  191 
Patterns,  Colors  of,  ...  170 

for  Cores 199 

Enlarging,       .  *172 

Payler,  J.W.  .  .  .  145,  *214 
Pennsylvania  Railway,  .  .  .  215 
Pens,  Drafting,  Filling,  .  .  212 
Pentagons,  Hammering  .  .  .  181 
Perpendicular, Erecting  with  a  Two- 
foot  Rule,  ....  225 

Piat,  A 198 

Pieces,  Screwing  together,.       .      266 

Warped,  Straightening      .        .  209 

Steel,  Working  Lines  on       .      210 

Pinning  of  Files,    ....      160 

Pins,  Oiling  from  One  End  Only,  *389 

Pipe,  Flange,  Casting  .        .        .201 

Dies, 181 

Pipe-fittting,    ,        .        .        .       .    *132 
Pipe-wrench,  Monkey-wrench  as      182 
Pipes,  Copper,  Bending        .        .      184 
Piston-rod,  Disconnecting       .        .  261 
Lock-nut  for     ....     *238 
Piston-rods,  Removing  from  Cross- 
heads 261 

Pistons,  Solid  vs.  Spring  .  .  241 
Pitch,  Diametral  vs,  Circular,  of 

Gears 815 

of  Screw *359 

Pit-planer,  Lead-screw     .        .       .66 

Pits,  Wheel 884 

Pivots.  Cone-center,  ....  289 


INDEX. 


389 


Page. 
Planer,    Cutting     Internal     Gears 

on  a 76 

Gage-blocks 75 

Packing  up  Work  on,      .        .      *78 

Pit,  Lead-screw,    .        .        .        .66 

Planers,  Open-side         ...        65 

Quick-return          .        .        .        .65 

betting  Machine-beds  on        .      *69 

Planer-beds,  Holding  Work  on       .    66 

Planer-belt  Shifter,       .        .        .    *312 

Planer-belts,    Why    They    Do    Not 

Last  Long,  .  .  .  *312 
Planer-chucks,  ....  67 
Planer-tables,  Supplementary.  .  67 
Planer-work,  Adjustable  Parallels 

for, *74 

Planing, 71 

Bevel-gear  Teeth,  .  .  .  *322 
Connecting-rods,  .  .  .  70 
Dead  Straight,  ...  71 

Gummy  Timber 179 

Hollow 71 

Large  Cast-iron  Plates,      .        .    72 

Milling  vs 110 

Planks,  Feeding  Heavy,  to  a  Saw,  176 
Plates,  Large  Cast-iron,  Planing        72 
Plate-work,  Reaming  Holes  in         *135 
Plumbago  (see  Graphite). 
Plumb-bob  Lines,  ....      260 

Tips 260 

Plumb-bobs,      .  .        .     *259, 302 

Point,  Vanishing 228 

Polishing  and  Sizing-clamp,        .    *168 

Pond  Works 25 

Poole,  J.  Morton,  .  .  .  *45,  115 
Portable  Brass  Furnace,  .  .  .198 

Power  of  a  Screw *359 

Practicality,  American  .  .  .342 
Pratt  &  Whitney, 

*44,  60,  94, 121, 147,  247,  322 
Preserving  Arbor-centers,  .  .  *28 
Pressure,  Atmospheric,  .  .  .257 
on  Safety-valves,  .  .  *255 
Principle,  Brace  ....  230 
Prints,  Blue,  of  Solid  Objects,  .  .  226 
Product,  Cost  of  .  .  .  .243 
Projecting  Keys,  ....  150 
Proportion,  Graphical  .  .  .  *281 
Proportions  of  Gear-teeth,  .  .  318 

Pyribil  &  Co *23,  178 

Pulley,  Common-sense,  Loose,        *309 
Hanging  up  a  Clutch,     .        .    *308 
Pulleys,  Craft's  Loose       .        .        *309 
Holding  .       158 

Keying  on  Shafts,  .  .  *310 
Straight-aimed,  Casting  .  187 

Split 811 

Pulley-balancing,  ....  *305 
Pulley-diameters,  Measuring  .  .  156 
Pulley-molding,  Interchangeable  *183 
Pumping  Gritty  Water,  .  .  341 


Pump-valves, 
Punch-bushings,     . 
Punch,  Centering,  . 
Punches,  Spiral,  . 
Pusey  &  Jones, 


.  341 
125 
126 

•126 
46 


Quadrants,      Cutting      Teeth      in 

Large *97 

Quick-return  Planers,    ...        65 

Railway,  Pennsylvania  .  .  215 
Railways,  Oil-saving  on  .  .  .887 
Ram,  Hydraulic  ....  861 

Rammer-eyes, 158 

Rawhide  Gears,  .  .  .  .326 
Reamed  Holes,  "Just  a  Trifle  too 

Small," 63 

Reamer,  Adjustable,  for  Brass,  .  62 
Adjustable,  for  Large  Work,  .  *61 
Adjustable,  for  Small  Work,  *61 

Center *4l 

Rose-bit 41 

Screw,  for  Boiler- work,      .        *186 
Screw,  for  Plate-work,        .        *186 

Starting *58 

Stepped *59 

Reamers,  Holding  while  Marking,  *63 
Standard  vs.  Adjustable        .       60 
Reaming  and  Boring  in  Two  Metals 

at  Once *80 

Axial         .....    *110 

Brass    ..'....  *62 

Fine  Taper       ....       60 

Holes  in  Plate-work,   .        .        *135 

Reckoning  Tapers,         .        .        .      354 

Regrinding  Rolls      .          ...  121 

Removing  Keys,    ....      151 

Piston-rods  from  Cross-heads,   261 

Tortuous  Cores,      .        .        .193 

Renewing  Molding-sand,         .        .  190 

Repair- work.  True         .        .        .159 

Rest,  Slide,  Adjustment  .        .        .  *55 

Swivel,  for  Taper-boring,     .      *56 

Rests,  Slide 86 

Steady *36 

Tool 35 

Revolver-lathe  Tools,  ...  47 
Riehle  Bros.,  .  .  *81,  *88,  *97 

Bros.  T.  M.  Co *34 

Riehl6's, *86 

Rigging, 275 

Ring  Gages, 209 

Rings,  Equal  Concentric, .  .  *224 
Riveted  Joint,  ....  *186 

Rock-drills 367 

Rolls,  Chilled,  Turning,  .  .  .  *45 
Corrugated  ....  122 
Cutting  to  Length,  .  .  .124 
Regrinding  .  .  .  .121 
Rubber,  Truing  .  .  .  .53 


390 


INDEX. 


Page. 
Rope  for  Hoisting,         .        .        .      276 

Wire,  Splicing  for  an  Eye,  *2S9 
Ropes,  Hoisting,  .  .  .  .286 

Hoisting,  Fastening  to  Hooks,  *287 
Rose-bit  for  Reaming  in  Two 

Metals, *80 

Reamer, 41 

Rotary  Shears,  Lathe  as      .        .        58 
Rubber  Gaskets,  To  Cut,         .        .  351 

Joints,        .        .        .        .        .858 

Rolls,  Centering,       ...    58 

Ruining  Files 160 

Rules  for  Horse-power,   .         .        .254 

for  Laying  out  Gearing,  .  828 
Running  Balance,  .  .  .  *305 

Safety-valves,  Pressure  on  .255 

Sand  Blast  for  File-sharpening.   .      162 

Core 193 

Molding,  Renewing        .        .      190 

Saving  Oil 337 

Saw  as  a  Machine-tool,         .        .123 
Gaining  with  a    .        .        .        .124 

Saws,  Hack 124 

Small,  Hardening  .  .  .208 
Scales,  Position  for  .  .  .  *272 

Scaffold-dogs, *267 

Schellenbeck,  Peter      .        .        .       *87 

Scrap-heaps, 866 

Scraping     Fits     for     Steam-engine 

Vtlves 848 

Screw,  Bunter1  .        ...        .        .  *69 

Double-threaded,  Power         .    *359 

Lead,  for  Pit-planer,  ...     66 

Reamer  for  Boiler-work,     .        *186 

Reamer  for  Plate-work,  .        .   *136 

Screwing  Pieces  together,        .        .  266 

Screws,  Metric-pitch      ...        57 

Set 152,  153 

Slot-headed,  Starting      .       .      153 
Screw-thread  Gages, 
Screw-threads,  Casting  .        .  187 

Measuring  ....  *147 
Screw-threading,  Dies  for  .  .  181 
Scriber,  Gear-tooth  .  .  .  *213 

Seavey,  H.  A 119 

Sectional  Files 168 

Section-lining  Small  Drawings,  *214 
Sections,  Beam,  Cast-iron  .  *238 
Securing  Brick  Veneers,  .  .  *290 
Driving-pins  to  Face-plates  .  *81 
Self-oiling  Bearings,  .  .  .329 
Sellers  &  Co.  ...  830, 341 
Sense,  Common,  vs.  Ingenuity,  .  280 

Set-screws 152,  158 

Setting  a  Lathe  Parallel.  ...    26 

Machine-beds  on  Planers,      .      *69 

Shaft-couplings,  Barbarous      .        .  304 

Shaft,  Jack,  Stands  for  .        .        .      299 

Key-seating  in  the  Lathe,  .        .    58 

Shapleyandhis    .        .        .        .298 


Pape. 

Shaft^diameters,  Measuring .       .      15t» 

Shafting-boxes,  Chucking     .        .        39 

Shafting,  Lining  up  .        .        .         *300 

Straightening  ....     *2(5'2 

Turning 35> 

Shafts,  Bending  Cranks  on       .        .  151 
Counterbalancing,  while  Turn- 
ing   55- 

Keying'Pulleyson         .        .       *3i«> 

Leading 296 

Long,  Hog-cuts  on      ...    38 
Straightening  ....      34^ 

Turning 5=i 

Shaper-chucks,  ....  68 
Shapley  and  his  Shaft,  .  .  .298 
Sharpening  Files,  .  .  .  .162 
Shears,  Center-cutting  .  .  *]37 
Lathe  as  Rotary  ...  58 
Sheet,  General  Dimension  .  .  281 
Shellac-can,  ....  *175 

Shellac,  Testing         .        .        .        .354 

Shellenback,  P *8<> 

Shelves  for  Core-oven,  .  .  .  19T 
Shifter,  Belt,  .  .  .  .  *3l'2 

Shop  Floors, 295- 

Lighting,  .        .        .        .        .      296. 

Lights 297 

Windows,          ....      297 

Work,  Keeping  Account  of        .  247 

Shops,  Car,  New  Wrinkle  in        .      29$ 

Cool  Water  for    .        .        .        .  29* 

Showing  all  Sides  of  an  Object,  .      21S 

Shrinkage-gage,          .        .        .        *26& 

Sibley  College,        ....      258 

Sight  Feed 840- 

Simplicity  in  Design,      .        .        .      227 
in  Engine  Design,       .        .        .  223 

Sizes,  Key 151 

Sizing-clamp,  .  .  .  .  *16S 
Sketching-pads,  .  .  .  .216 
Slender  Twist  Moldings,  Making  .  176 
Slide-rest,  Adjustment  ...  55 

Slide-rests 36 

Slots,  Tool-post  ....  39 
Slotter,  Cutting  Gear-wheels  on  .  7  <> 
Smith  and  Coventry,  .  .  .  *:-K 

Smith,  Oberlin, 231 

(See  also  Ferracute  Works.) 

Solid  vs.  Spring  Pistons,        .        .      241 

Wrenches,     .        .        .        .        *153 

Spacing  of  Teeth  and  Flutes,  .        .111 

Special  Gears,         .        .        .        .    *319 

Machines 357 

Speed,  Cutting,  of  Lathe-tools,    .        5(> 

of  Drills 9& 

of  Milling-cutters,  .  .  .112 
Spindles,  Lathe-center,  Grinding  *13 
Spiral  Flutes  in  Milling-cutters,  .  *106 
Spiral-groove  Milling-cutters,  *106 
Spiral  Punches,  ....  *12ft 
Spirals,  Milling Ill 


INDEX. 


391 


Page. 

Splicing  Drills 92 

Wire  Rope  for  an  Eye,        .        *289 

Split  Cotters, 152 

Keys 150 

Pulleys, 311 

Spring  Lathe-chuck  for  Brass  Work,  *^9 

Springs,  Blazing  off       ...      207 

Cotton-seed  Oil  for  Blazing  off  .  20T 

Spur-chuck  for  Wood-turning,    .    *130 

Spur-gear  Blanks 321 

Square,  T.,  Gripping  .  .  .213 
Squares,  Steel,  Improving  .  .  155 
Squaring  up  Connecting-rods,  .  *50 
Stacks,  Paint  for  Iron  .  .  .  264 
Painting  Iron  ....  *202 

Stagings, *269 

Standard  Boring-bars,   . 

Reamers  vs.  Adjustable,    .        .    60 

Tapers *354 

ToolCo 146 

Standing  Balance, ....    * 
Stands,  Jack-shaft  ....      299 

Starting-drill, *S 

Starting-reamer,     ....      *58 
Starting  Slot-headed  Screws.  .        .  153 
Steady-rest  for  Tapering  Work,      .  *36 
Steam-engines,  Horse-power  of   .      254 
Crank-pin  for           ...       240 
Steam  Fire-engine  Test.   .        .        .    46 
Hammers  as  Steam  Consumers,  179 
Steel,  Annealing,  in  an  Open  Fire, .  211 
Bluing,  without  Heat,     .        .      210 
Cutting  Small  Diameter,    .        .  124 
Etching  on       ....      349 
Hardened,  Drills  for  Working  .    91 
Squares,  Improving         .        .      155 
Temperature-gage  for       .        .  210 
Tempering,  by  Gas         .        .      206 
Tool,  Hardening         .        .        .  207 
Tools,  Marking        ...      354 
Stencils,    Making,  without  Cutting- 
tools,          350 

Stepped  Reamer  for  Tapers,        .      *59 
Steps,  Foot,  Turbine,   To  Prevent 

from  Welding  .        .        .        .  33fl 
Turbine,  Anti-friction    .        .    *333 

Stiff  Slide-rests 36 

Straight-edges,  Tapering      .        .      150 
Straightening  Core-tubes,         .        .  192 

Shafting *262 

Shafts 348 

Taps 130 

Warped  Pieces 209 

Straight  Line  Engine  Co.,  196,*197,  *339 
Strap,  Eccentric,  Broken  .        .        .  375 

Straw  for  Cores 191 

Strengthening  Floors,        .        .        *294 
Strength  of  Gear-teeth,         .        .      517 

Stud-nut *235 

Suction-hose,  Canvas     .        .        .      841 
Sun-prints  from  Tracings,        .        .  225 


Page. 

Suplee,  H.  H 156 

Supplementary  Planer-tables,  .  .  6T 
Supplies,  Consumption  of  .  .  24* 
Surface-gage,  Fine  Adjustment  .  142 
Surface-plates,  Care  of  .  .  .  141 

True 13» 

Survey,  Coast 25T 

Sweeping  up  Loam  Cores  on  Barrelsl95 

Sweet,  J.  E.    .    *126,  153,  *258,  *340,  374 

Swivel  Planer-tables,  6T 

Rest  for  Boring  Tapers,    .        .  *56 

Supplementary  Planer-table .        6T 

Tool-holders &* 

System,  Three-point      .       .        .      222 

Table,  Planer,  Swivel  .  .  .  6T 
Tables,  Planer,  Supplementary  .  6T 

Tacks,  Thumb 216 

Taking  up  Apron-pivot  Wear       .        66 

Tanks,  Oil   .        .        •        .        .        .340 

"Tapering  Straight-edges".        .        150 

Work,  Steady-rest  Tor     .        .      *86 

Taper,  "Jarno"   ....        *353 

Oscillating  Valves  ...      240 

Reaming,  Fine    ....    60 

Tapers 96 

Boring *55 

Boring,  in  a  Lathe  .        .        .      *2» 
Gage  for  Turning       .        .        .  *42 

Key 151 

Reckoning   .  ...  854 

Standard *354 

Stepped  Reamer  for  .        .        .  *59 

Swivel-rest  for  Boring     .        .      *56 

Taps,  Collapsing       .        .        *128,  *12» 

Fluting 130 

Frictional 130 

Straightening  ....      130 
Why  They  Break,         .        .        12T 
Teeth.Cutting,  in  Large  Quadrants,  *97 
False,  for  Spur-gears,      .        .      324 
Gear,  Dimensions  of  .        .        .  317 
Gear,  Figuring         .        .        .      327 
Gear,  Laying  off  for  a  Sprocket- 
wheel         320 

Gear,  Proportions  of       .        .      31& 

Gear,  Strength  of       ...  31T 

Gear,  Testing  ....      32T 

Planing  Bevel-gear     .        .        *322 

Temperature-gage  for  Steel,         .      210 

Tempering  Steel  by  Gas,  .        .        .  206 

Templates,  Draftsmen's        .        .      211 

of  the  Human  Figure,         .        .  231 

Temporary  Cranes,        .       .        .    *280 

Hoisting,       .  *283 

Tenoning-machine  Spoke-throaters,  877 

Testing  Gear-teeth 82T 

Lathe-centers 2:5 

The  Poor  Old  Lathe,         .        .  9 

Thousandth  of  an  Inch,  .  .  14T 
Threading  and  Boring,  .  .  .  *4T 


392 


INDEX. 


Page, 
Threads,  Cutting,  in  a  Lathe,       .      181 

Three-point  System 222 

Three    vs.    Four    Dies    for    Screw- 
threading,          .        .        .          131 

Thumb-tacks 216 

Timber,  Gummy,  Planing,       .        .179 

Hitch *283 

Timbers,  Lashing  Derrick        .        *281 
Tips,  Plumb-bob     ....      260 

Tool-holder,  Armstrong  .        .        .  *47 
Tool-holders,  Swivel      ...        88 
Tool  lists,     .          .....  843 

Tool,  Monitor-lathe,          .  .    47 

Tool-points,  Breaking,  ...        60 
Tool-post  Slots  in  Lathes,         .        .    89 
Tool-rests,        ,        ....        85 

Tool,  Turret-lathe      .       .       .       .47 

Turret,  Lubricator  for    .        .        64 

Tools  for  One  Hand 156 

Grinding *1J9 

Lathe,  Angle-gage  for       .        .    88 
Lathe,  Cast-iron,      ...        42 
Special,  Distinguishing      .        .  158 
Steel,  Marking         ...      854 
Twisting  of  Long       .        .        .205 
Warping  of  Long,    .        .        .205 
Tooth  and  Flute  Spacing,        .        .Ill 
Gear, Outlines  for  General  Adop- 
tion,         319 

To  Soften  White  or  Silver  Iron,      .  211 

Trammels, 2i4 

Transmission  by  Gearing,  .  .  315 
Triangles,  Handy  ....  215 
Troublesome  Bearings,  .  .  .829 
Truck,  Inspector's  .  .  .  *848 
True  Surface-plates,  .  .  .  .189 
Truing  Commutators,  .  .  .  161 
off  Fly-wheels,  .  .  .  *169 

Rubber  Rolls 58 

Truly  Round  Balls,  How  to  Make  .  122 
Tube,  Core,  Burning  together,  .  192 
Tube-cutter,  Monkey-wrench  as  a  .158 
Tubes,  Core,  Straightening  .  192 
Turbine  Steps,  Anti-friction  .  *383 
Turbines,  Foundations  for  .  .  836 
Turning  a  Cube  in  a  Lathe,  .  .  57 

Brass  Bolts 43 

Chilled  Rolls,       .        ...        .  *45 

Large  Bars 34 

Shafting,       .  .        .        .85 

Shafts.  ....        54 

Tapers,  Gage  for       ...  *42 

Vulcanized  Fiber,    ...        53 

Wood,  Spur-chuck  for         .        *130 

Turnings,  Disposing  of .        .        .        64 

Turret-lathe  Tool,      .        .        .        .47 

Turret-tool  Lubricator, ...        64 

Twist-cutters, 177 

Twist-drill  Clearance,  ...  93 
Twist  Drills  for  Sheet  Brass,  .  .  *90 
Twisting  of  Long  Tools,  .  .  205 


Page. 

Twist-molding,  Slender,  Making  .  176 
Two-part  Clamp-dog,  .  .  .  *31 

Using  Oil  on  Milling-machines,     .  *107 

Valves,  Globe,  in  Pipe-lines       .        183 
Oscillating,  Taper    .        .        .240 

Pump 841 

Scraping  Fits  for  Steam-engine  848 
Vanishing-point,  .  .  .  222 
Various  Uses  of  the  Lathe,  .  .  58 
Veneers,  Securing  Brick  .  .  *290 

Venting  Cores 190 

Green-sand  Molds,  .  .  189 
Vise,  Handy  Eccentric  .  .  .  *84 
Vise-height,  Best  .  .  .  166 

Vulcanized  Fiber,  Turning    .        .      68 

Wabbler,     .  83 

Ware,  M 211 

Warping  of  Long  Tools,  .  .  205 
Water,  Cool,  for  Shops  .  .  .298 
Water-discharge.  ...  252 
Water-mains,  Drilling  in  while  They 

are  Full *95 

Water,  Pumping  Gritty  .  .  841 
Watts-Campbell  Co.  .  .  .111 
Wear,  Taking  up,  on  Apron-pivot  66 
Weight  of  Mercury,  .  .  .  257 
Weights  and  Measures,  Bureau  of  267 

of  Castings,  ....  199 
Westinghouse,  .  .  .  .157 
Wheels,  Emery  ....  207 

Gear,  Wrinkle  about  .  .  815 
Wheel-machinery,  .  .  .  877 

Wheel-pits, 834 

Wheel,  Sprocket,  Laying  off  Gear- 
teeth  for 820 

Wheels,  Fly  (see  Fly-wheels). 

Wooden  Core 326 

Whitworth,  Sir  Joseph  ...  82 
Wilkinson,  William.  ...  90 
Windows,  Shop  ....  297 
Wing-flanges,  Cocking  .  .  .850 
Wooden  Core-boxes,  .  .  .195 

Core-wheels,  .  .  .  .826 
Wood-turning,  Depth,  Gage  for  .  179 

Spur-chuck  for  .        .          *180 

Woods,  S.  A.,  Mch.  Co.,  .  .  *81 
Work,  Overtime  ....  250 
Working  Loose,To  Keep  Nuts  from*242 
Working-lines  on  Steel  Pieces,  .  210 
Work-centers,  *20 

Work-drivers  for  Lathe,  .  .  .  *30 
Work,  Driving  ....  82 
Works,  Delamater  .  .  .  *235 

Ferracute         .        .        211,213,215 

Industrial  (see  Bement  &  Miles 

Co.). 

Worms,  Facing-tool  for  .  .119 
Worm-threads,  Limit-gage  for  .  157 


INDEX. 


393 


Page. 

Wrench,  "Cornell"  .  .  .  *168 
Monkey,  as  a  Tube-cutter,  .  .158 
Monkey,  for  Pipe-work  .  .  *182 

Wrenches,  Monkey,  and  Pipe-tongs,  182 
Solid.  .  .  .  .  .  *168 


Wrinkle  about  Cranes, 
about  Gear-wheels,  . 
in  Center-gages,  . 
New,  in  Car-shops,  . 

Yale  &  Towne  Mfg.  Co., 

.      815 
•159 
.       .      296 

.     91,288 

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